Walter Sisulu’s Grandson Earns PhD at GIBS for Research on African Business Elites
Walter Sisulu’s grandson, Dr Shaka Sisulu, has earned his PhD from the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, and his research is turning heads in boardrooms and government offices across Africa.
Source: UGC
His thesis argues that local business coordination is not just good economics. It is one of the most powerful forces shaping governance and democracy on the continent.
The University of Pretoria’s GIBS awarded Sisulu the Doctor of Philosophy in International Business in May 2026. His research took him across four very different African countries to understand how business elites behave inside different political systems.
What 49 honest conversations revealed
Sisulu talked to 49 senior business leaders across South Africa, the DRC, Eswatini, and Côte d’Ivoire. These are not easy people to reach, and even harder to get talking honestly. What they told him confirmed something significant: where local business leaders could coordinate around shared interests, national institutions tended to be more stable and more functional.
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The research builds on Nobel laureate Douglass North’s work on how elite behaviour shapes political systems. Sisulu extends that thinking directly into the African context, showing that local business investment and democratic institution-building are often the same project.
His findings carry real weight for policymakers and executives across the continent. Supporting local business is not separate from building a better country. The research moves from the page into the classroom in July 2026, when Sisulu and Professor Albert Wocke launch a new MBA elective at GIBS called “The Inner Circle: Politics, Elites and Business in Africa.”
Source: Briefly News
