Dr Tapfuma Pashapa

Dr. Tapfuma Pashapa is a Research Associate in the iCOMMS research unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He has expertise in demography, statistics, and mathematics. His research interests include inequality studies and the spatial dynamics of access to public services in the digital age.

His recent studies have focused on rurality and public services in the digital era, as well as the gender digital divide in South African settlements. He completed his PhD in Information Systems in 2025. His doctoral research used the South African context as a case study to investigate the value of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for people-centric service delivery models in low- and middle-income countries. Through this study, he developed rurality indexes for South Africa that consider the impact of ICTs.

After graduating with an MPhil in Demography from UCT in 2010, he worked as a research assistant in the Centre for Actuarial Research (CARe) at UCT on the Agincourt Health, Demographic and Surveillance System study. The study sought to understand errors arising in censuses and surveys. His primary responsibilities included managing datasets and developing preliminary reports.

During his time at UCT, Dr. Pashapa also served as a Teaching and Research Assistant in both the Department of Information Systems and CARe. His duties included teaching the Introduction to Information Systems course, assisting with demography courses, supervising information systems dissertations, and conducting research on the IT strategies of South Africa’s diverse higher education institutions.