Wellington Muzengeza

Wellington Muzengeza is an Africa-focused infrastructure and geopolitical risk specialist, investigative journalist, and policy analyst with over 15 years of experience across governance, investment, and large-scale infrastructure systems in Southern and East Africa. His work examines the political economy of critical minerals, energy, and digital infrastructure, focusing on how power, value, and influence are structured and distributed within complex and often opaque investment environments.
With a background in urban planning and construction management, combined with on-the-ground experience in telecommunications, energy, and logistics, he brings a multidisciplinary lens to analysing how external actors, including China, Western institutions, and emerging global players, engage African economies. His work explores how these engagements intersect with domestic political structures, regulatory systems, and elite networks.
Muzengeza’s journalism interrogates governance, inequality, urban transformation, and state power, particularly how informal systems shape political authority where formal institutions are weak. His work has been published in Mail & Guardian, Daily Maverick, MSN, AllAfrica, The Star Kenya, Zimbabwe Independent, and NewsDay, and he has provided commentary on Channel Africa.
He is a Research Fellow at the Africa Centre for Critical Minerals and Energy Transition (ACCET) and author of the book The Informal State: How African Cities Are Governed Beyond the Law.