Mudzunga Munzhedzi

Mudzunga Munzhedzi began his academic journey in 2006 at the University Pretoria where he enrolled for Bachelor of Heritage and Cultural Sciences, majoring in Heritage and Cultural Tourism and Archaeology. He later pursued an honours degree in Archaeology at the University of Venda in 2011. He obtained his master’s degree in Archaeology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 2022. Mudzunga has delivered lectures and presented papers in archaeology and museology. He showcased conference posters at PAA-SAfA in 2014 and ASAPA in 2017. In 2019, he presented a paper at SAMA and again at the 87th SAMA Conference in 2023. He is a professional member of ICOM and SAfA, and received the Archaeological Golden Trowel Award from the University of Pretoria. He has previously participated in both local and international conservation and collections management-focused workshops.

Mudzunga’s professional career began in 2012 at Iziko Museums of South Africa, when he secured an internship opportunity funded by the National Research Foundation, an entity of the then-national Department of Science and Technology. Throughout the internship programme, his role evolved around archaeology and collections management under the Social History Department at Iziko Museums.

After completing the internship, Iziko Museums offered Mudzunga the role of Collections and Conservation Assistant in 2013. In the same year, he left the museum to join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum (KZN Museum) as a Research Technician under the Human Sciences Department. Since 2015, he has held the position of Collections Technician for the Human Sciences Department, KZN Museum. In his eleven-year experience in the museum industry, he has grown an interest in the conservation and collections management of heritage objects. In addition to that, his other roles involve field archaeology, public engagement and many other curatorial issues.