Online Book Talk #3 _ 30 January 2026
Book Series ‘Local and Urban Governance’
Embedded Files
Online Book Talk . 30 January 2026 . 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
Urban Water Governance in Postcolonial Zimbabwe
Book: Abraham R Matamanda; T. R. Gambe; J. I Bhanye; T. C Maramura & O. Khoza (2025). Urban Water Governance in Postcolonial Zimbabwe. Cham: Springer (see here ∞ )
Book presented by: Abraham R Matamanda, University of the Free State, South Africa
Discussant: Regis Musavengane, University of the Free State, South Africa
Moderator: Carlos Nunes Silva, Geographer, Lisbon, Portugal
Editor of the Book Series 'Local and Urban Governance'
Event Details:
· Date and Time: Friday, 30 January 2026, 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
· Location: Online (zoom link will be sent to registered participants)
· Register here (Google form): https://forms.gle/p98PWVqfaP28EqoUA
Time: time referred is UTC. Confirm what it corresponds to in your place (See, here: https://time.is/UTC )
Book Series: Local and Urban Governance (Springer): https://www.springer.com/series/16129
Contact: Carlos Nunes Silva, Lisbon, Portugal, E-mail: cnsulisboa@gmail.com
About the book
This book focuses on urban water supply and governance in the Global South using urban Zimbabwe as a case study to provide insights and perspectives into the realities of the water governance. Applying a resilience and sustainability perspective, we argue that fragmentation of responsibilities between various institutions, the difficulty of coordination at various levels, and the politics centered on water supply constrain effective water governance in Zimbabwe. This has resulted in a downward spiral in urban water services in Zimbabwe's urban centers. Additionally, the innovative nature of this study is to draw from an often-neglected dimension in urban water governance, which is the political ecology which brings into perspective the varying int1erests associated with environmental contests and conflicts that influence water allocation and sharing among urban areas by the public sector. Therefore, this book dwells on understanding the politics, economic and ecology of water governance through an interdisciplinary lens. This analysis is critical for this study because Zimbabwe's current state of obsolete water infrastructure has also had a negative impact on the supply of high-quality portable water services to the public in urban areas. This book will be a critical read for academic and professionals in the fields of urban geographers, planners, sociologists and water experts. It will also be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students from Geography, Urban and regional Planning, Political Science, Development Studies and Economics.
Biographical notes
Abraham R Matamanda holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, and is an NRF Y2-rated urban and regional planner. Abraham lectures at the University of the Free State (UFS) and is the Deputy Chair of the SARChI Chair on City −Region Economies in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the UFS. Currently, he serves as the editor of the Town Planning Journal published by the UFS and also serves on the academic editorial board of the PLOS Water journal and sits on the Advisory Board of Urban Research & Practice Journal. He is a fellow of the third cohort of Phase I of the Future Professorate Programme at the Department of Higher Education and Training. His research focuses on urban governance and planning, climate change adaptation and resilience, informal Global South urbanism, urban land markets and housing studies. Abraham has co-authored and co-edited several books published with Springer Nature, including ‘Urban geography in postcolonial Zimbabwe: Paradigms and perspectives for sustainable urban planning and governance’; ‘Housing and technology: Special focus on Zimbabwe’; ‘Urban infrastructure in Zimbabwe: Departures, divergences and convergences’; ‘Secondary cities and local governance in Southern Africa’; ‘Sustainable development goals and urban health: Strides, challenges and ways forward for poor neighbourhoods’.
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Johannes I Bhanye is an interdisciplinary researcher and urban planning scholar whose research revolves around four key themes: southern urbanism and urban informality; urban inclusion and exclusion; cities, social change and transformation; and cities, space and power. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town. His current research is on Urban water adaptation: Exploring practices of adaptive governance for building urban water resilience in Cape Town’s informal settlements. Dr Bhanye holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Migration and Land Settlement), an MSc in Social Ecology, and a BSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Zimbabwe. He is also affiliated with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, where he teaches the module Climate Change and the City for the master’s program in Sustainable Urban Practice.
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Regis Musavengane has research interests in Land Governance and Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) within the context of political ecology, particularly in tourism geographies and rural communities whose livelihoods depends on communal resources. His work is on shared resources, conservation, collaborative governance, environmental justice, minority inclusion, climate adaptation and resilience building. He holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies from Witwatersrand University and serves as a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein Campus, in the Geography Department. A research fellow with the Centre for Information, Learning and Knowledge (CILK)-Transfer at the Local Initiatives and Development (LID) Agency, Zimbabwe. He is a member of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS) and the Society of South African Geographers (SSAG). Before joining UFS he served as a Research Associate at the Centre of Excellence for Adaptation and Resilience at the University of South Africa (UNISA); the Witwatersrand, and the Vaal University of Technology. Served as a Faculty member at the Midlands State University. Has externally examined Masters and PhDs for Stellenbosch University, University of the Witwatersrand, Zululand University, University of South Africa, Lupane State University and Chinhoyi University of Technology in different areas of human geography. He has vast industry experience in the development sector and research institutes.
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