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Prof. Philani Nongogo is an academic in sports studies (sport scientist, sport sociologist, and sport historian), a public commentator, and an author (co-author of UMBHOXO: Making Rugby an Afrikan Game (2023)).

Prof Nongogo joined WSU on 01 April 2024, following more than two decades in the Higher Education sector, during which he served in various academic positions, moving from the bottom as a Junior Research Fellow, Junior Lecturer, and Lecturer, to the Senior Lecturer level.

Professor Nongogo is an Associate Professor of Sport Management and Sport Studies, and the Programme Coordinator of the Sport Management unit within the Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Management of the Faculty of Management and Public Administration Sciences at Walter Sisulu University. 

He also leads the Community Engagement-stroke-Third-Stream Income Programme, where WSU serves as a service provider for the Eastern Cape Sport Academy (ECAS). Together with colleagues in the Sport Management unit, he is often tasked with conducting physical fitness tests and educating athletes (soft skills) across the province through the EC Academy system. 

Prof Nongogo holds a Bachelor of Pedagogics degree (1999); a BA Honours degree (2000), a Master of Arts (2003), all in Human Movement Studies from the University of Fort Hare; and a D.Phil in Human Movement Science from the University of Pretoria (2016). He has also attained three Postgraduate Certificates from the Universities in the United Kingdom (Olympic Studies, University of Loughborough) and Finland (Vocation Education, University of Haaga-Helia for Applied Studies), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Olympic Studies from the University of Peloponnese, Greece.

He has been in the Higher Education sector for the past 26 years, serving in Academic (and Research and Community Engagement) roles and as a Leader. He cut his teeth as an academic at the University of Fort Hare, KwaNoKholeji, (1999 to 2004) and proceeded to the Tshwane University of Technology, where he spent the bulk of his academic life, 19 years, three months, until he decided to leave Gauteng Province for the Home of Legends early in 2024.

As an Academic, Prof Nongogo has played multiple critical roles in the academic departments, growing from a Graduate Assistant, a Junior Research Fellow, and a Junior Lecturer in the Human Movement Studies/Science Department of the University of Fort Hare and at the Tshwane University of Technology, before joining the Walter Sisulu University in 2024.

He has achieved a few milestones within the academic space. In research and innovation, his career took off after he settled into the sector in 2005 and has since published 22 research papers in peer-reviewed, accredited journals, 4 book chapters, and a co-authored book. The latter is his seminal work contribution: a peer-reviewed output, a monograph on the lived experiences and rugby tradition and practices by the Afrikan people (by Philani Nongogo, Buntu Siwisa, Hendrik Snyders and Mzukisi Twala, 2023. Soon after its publication, UMBHOXO, opened a new window of opportunity, where one was inundated by both the local and international media houses and independent journalists, enquiring about black people’s rugby history and sporting experiences, in yesteryear and in the contemporary South African society, especially since 2023 was a rugby World Cup year. There is still great interest in this work.

Prof Nongogo has offered his expertise (specializing as an academic and media personnel) and time in the national sport and culture agenda of the country by engaging in various projects, which include: Volunteering his time and services: - While serving as an academic at UFH, he participated in the 2003 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, in the games and matches that were held in East London (now KuGompo City), at the Buffalo Park Grounds, together with Mrs Julie-Ann Milner, who is now a colleague here at WSU. Prof Nongogo also participated in the Federation of International Football Associations’ (FIFA) Confederations Cup South Africa 2009, which preceded the first FIFA World Cup on the Afrikan continent, in 2010, hosted by South Africa.  Prof Nongogo was also called upon by SASCOC to contribute to the planning of the IOC’s 7th World Congress on Sport, Education and Culture, which the city of Ethekwini, South Africa, hosted in 2010, where he served as the Head Rapporteur.

Prof Nongogo believes strongly that Walter Sisulu University is best placed to grow and contribute to the Afrikan agenda of reclaiming its rightful place in the sun. He is optimistic that the children of Tat’Xhamela will indeed rise, in pursuit of excellence, to the fullest.

Prof Nongogo teaches Sport and Physical Recreation Studies  III and also coordinates the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programme for the Sport Management unit's Sports Experiential Training modules (1st and 2nd semesters). He is also supervising a number of master's candidates from his previous institutions and has graduated two master's students in the past two years.

Sport Performance enhancement strategies (Stretching Exercises and conditioning), Sports Studies: Olympic Studies (sports struggled against colonial and apartheid political systems; sports boycott campaigns etc.), Sociology of Sport (Women’s rugby), and the History of Sport (black people’s lived sporting experiences – cricket and rugby; and non-racial sports in general)