Tasneem Essop

Researcher​

Tasneem Essop is a researcher at SWOP, where she has been based since 2017. She works on the Popular Politics programme where she has conducted research on community protests as well as electoral politics. Her broader interests include political organisations, social movements and popular politics.Tasneem is a PhD candidate, her project is titled Popular Politics and the Congress Tradition: Political Practice, Claim-making and Modes of Identification in Popular Political Formations in South Africa. She holds a Masters Degree in Political Studies (Wits), having undertaken research that focused on the political party the Economic Freedom Fighters, branch politics and populism. Prior to joining SWOP, Tasneem has worked in government and with the non-governmental sector and has been involved in movements both within and outside of the university.

Programme

Popular Politics

Publications

Holdt, Karl von, and Tasneem Essop. 2020. “Maverick Citizen Op-Ed: South Africa: Popular Movements Mobilise under Lockdown.” Daily Maverick.
Holdt, Karl Von, and Tasneem Essop. 2020. “COVID-19 in South Africa: Popular Movements Mobilise Under Lockdown.” The Wire.
von Holdt, Karl, and Tasneem Essop. 2020. “Communities, Not Government, Can and Are Fighting Covid-19.” DispatchLIVE.
Essop, Tasneem. 2016. “Populism and the Political Character of the Economic Freedom Fighters – a View from the Branch.” Labour, Capital And Society/Travail, Capital Et Societe 48(1 and 2):213–38.