Region: South Africa, Africa

Main Areas Of Interest: Democratic Governance and Human Rights

Fellowship Period: December-February 2005

Keywords: Civil society participation, political monitoring and advocacy

Biographical Profile:
Thami is a South African human rights activist with a keen research interest in evolving governance and security structures in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa.

Thami is an active member of the HRDialogue Network of more than 490 human rights activists from the global South, which share and collectively pursues social justice. He serves as the General Secretary of the SADC Civil Rights Network based in Harare. He serves as Acting Director at the Centre for Public Participation in South Africa. He is also a representative of the South African Minister of Education on the Council of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where he serves as a member of the Staffing Committee, Audit and Risk Committee and Resource Planning Committee.

During his time at ICTE, Thami actively pursued a project on the comparative analysis of the governance structures of the African Union and the Organization of American States, in order to understand the provisions made for civil society participation.