Rasigan Maharajh

Professor Rasigan Maharajh (born 8 November 1969, Durban), is an activist scholar who is primarily based in South Africa. In 2004, he was the founding Chief Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI)^[1] which is located at the Tshwane University of Technology. From 2014, he has also served as the Node Head of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy.^[1] Since 2015, he holds the title of Professor Extraordinary of the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) of Stellenbosch University.

Career

During the mid- to late-1980’s, Rasigan Maharajh began his working life [wage-slavery] as a ‘shelf packer’ for a supermarket chain store in South Africa whilst simultaneously holding elected positions in the student and youth affiliates of the United Democratic Front (UDF). In 1985, Rasigan was part of a collective Student Action Committee that mobilised at the Reservoir Hills Secondary School for the establishment of democratic representative structures for pupils. He was subsequently elected to the executive committee in the portfolio of Publicity-Officer and also served as the Editor of Student Unity. He was involved in the work of the National Education Crisis Committee and the Natal Students Congress during the apartheid regime’s restrictions on Congress of South African Students (COSAS). In 1987, he was appointed the co-editor of the Student Diary by the Orientation Committee of the Student Representative Council of the University of Natal-Durban. In 1988, Rasigan served as Vice-President of Youth in Progress, a community based organisation aligned to the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) in Reservoir Hills.

In 1989, Rasigan was elected to the Secretariat and Central Executive Committee of the Black Students Society (BSS) of the University of Natal-Durban as Publicity-Secretary. Rasigan also worked as a Local Coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and UDF Defiance Campaigns and Consumer Boycotts. He was a founding member of Black Students Society Labour Committee which mobilised alliances between workers and students. In 1990, Rasigan was elected to the Branch Executive Committee of the South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) as Media Officer whilst also a member of the Regional Political Education Collective. Rasigan also acted as a Media Coordinator for the Mass Democratic Movement’s ‘Campaign against the War in Natal’ in 1990. During these times, Rasigan served the underground machinery of the African National Congress (ANC) in Southern Natal.

Between 1988 and 1990, he was employed by the Labour and Community Resources Project (LACOM) of the South African Committee for Higher Education Trust (SACHED) as an Organiser and Desktop Publishing Assistant. Rasigan served in the interim leadership group of the ANC in Reservoir Hills and was elected to its first Branch Executive Committee in 1990. Between 1990 and 1991, Rasigan was employed by Department of Politics of the University of Natal as a Research Intern under the supervision of Dr Ian Phillips. Their work entailed the compilation and verification of armed attacks against the apartheid regime by the military structures of the national liberation movements. During this period, he also worked as a Journalist for Africa Information Afrique where he contributed to the Youth and Student Political Desk. In 1991, Rasigan was elected to the Executive Committee and Secretariat of the first non-racial Students Representative Council of the University of Natal as its Secretary-General. In that year, Rasigan also worked in Information and Publicity at the 48th National Conference of the ANC in Durban.

Between 1992 and 1993, Rasigan was employed as a Research Assistant in the Macro-Education Policy Unit which was being established at the University of Durban-Westville by Enver Motala. From 1993 until 1994, Rasigan worked in various deployments on Adult Basic Education and Training with Operation Upgrade of Southern Africa, an affiliate of the National Literacy Cooperative. In 1994, he began work as Senior Researcher of the Education Policy Unit (EPU) based at the University of Natal-Durban for John Pampallis. After conducting preliminary studies on the National Qualifications Frameworks and workplace-based skills development for the Southern Natal Region of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, he was employed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada to coordinate the National Science and Technology Policy Transition Project of the Mass Democratic Movement. In this deployment, Rasigan was seconded to the emergent Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology of South Africa's Government of National Unity.

After contributing to the successful adoption of the first post-apartheid White Paper on Science and Technology and coordinating various new policy initiatives, Rasigan was employed as the Programme Manager of the Policy Studies Unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1997. In 1999, Rasigan assisted with the establishment of the CSIR’s Manufacturing and Materials Technology Division. From then until 2001, he served as Divisional Technology Investment Manager whilst also functioning as the Manager of the Manufacturing Policy Centre. In these roles, Rasigan contributed to the roll-out of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy and was also part of the team responsible for Micro-Economic Reform (Vision 2014). From 2002 until 2004, he was redeployed as the Head of Policy at the CSIR.

In 2004, Rasigan was employed by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) as Chief Director responsible for the establishment of a scholarly competence in the political economy of local development and innovation. In September 2004, the Institute for Economic Research in Innovation (IERI) was inaugurated at TUT with the patronage of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Rasigan has been a Ministerial Representative on the Council of Rhodes University since 2012. He was also elected by the Faculty of Economics and Finance to the Senate of Tshwane University of Technology in 2012 and is serving his second term since 2015.

In 2014, IERI together with its partner, the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) of Stellenbosch University was accorded the status as one of the country's national Centre of Excellence by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). During 2014, Rasigan was also a Visiting Research Scholar at the George Perkins Marsh Institute of Clark University in the USA and Visiting Professor at Rede de Pesquisa em Sistemas e Arranjos Produtivos e Inovativos Locais in the Instituto de Economia of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Rasigan Maharajh was appointed Professor Extraordinary of Stellenbosch University in 2015 and concurrently serves as the Node Head of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (SciSTIP). He is also an Associate Research Fellow of the Tellus Institute in Boston.

Professor Maharajh holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Forskningspolitiska Institutet (Research Policy Institute) of the School of Economics and Management at Lund University in Sweden. Rasigan is also an alumnus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa and the Harvard Business School of the United States of America.

Research

His research is mindful of the position of South Africa in the context of the global economy as one of the BRICS. Thus he analyses the development of Information and Communication Technologies in terms of the political economy.^[2]

References

1. Great Transition Initiative. "Rasigan Maharajh". Tellus Institute. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
2. "Digital Liberty, the Knowledge Commons, ICT Challenges for BRICS". You Tube, HSRC BRICS Research Centre. Human Sciences Research Council. Retrieved 3 April 2016.