Somadoda Fikeni is a public figure who has held various leadership roles in the public sector organizations and as a scholar or public intellectual who has influenced public discourse, institution building and public policies. He is currently the chairperson of the Public Service Commission of South Africa as well as the chairperson of the Indlulamithi South Africa Scenarios Board of Trustees. Prof Fikeni is the founder and an elected convenor of the Southern African Forum for the Public Service Commissions, which has recently been established and also part of the leadership team of the Forum of Institutions Supporting Democracy (chapter 9, chapter 10 and 13 constitutional bodies)
Educationally, he holds BA & BA Honours (Unitra), MA (Queens University in Canada) and a PHD (Michigan State University) as well as numerous short programmes in specialized areas. His areas of specialization and interest are political science, public policy analysis and development, history, political economy and heritage. He has lectured in different universities in South Africa and abroad. He has also held management positions at universities and policy institutions as well as think tanks. He is a researcher and an author in the aforementioned fields. His main professional work has been and continues to be in public policy development, higher education and heritage sector. He has chaired a number of boards and councils. He has also participated in establishment and repositioning organizations. He is a visiting professor at the Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.
One of the leading public commentators on politics, policy, economic, social and heritage issues in South African and international media and forums having been recognized with several awards for this work. He is a public speaker as well as a motivational speaker.
He has received several honours and awards in South Africa and abroad and one of these is the honorary chieftaincy that was bestowed on him in Ghana. He is a community development activist and has initiated a number of community development and charity organizations to mobilize resources for assistance of the poor and the disadvantaged. As a student leader and a youth he was involved in anti-apartheid struggle and got detained on numerous occasions for his activism