Murray Leibbrandt is professor, NRF Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research - and Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town.

[3] He then proceeded to University of Notre Dame, where he read for Masters and doctorate degrees, graduating in 1986 and 1993 respectively.

[3] In 1999, Leibbrandt with his colleagues - Ingrid Woolard and Haroon Bhorat - conducted a series of studies intended to study the dynamics of inequality in South Africa up to that point.

[4][5][6] They show that race largely correlates with lower income and inequality,[4] and the reliance of Gauteng, South Africa's economic hub, on migrant labour - to fill its chronic labour shortfall.

[5] Leibbrandt is the Principal Investigator of South Africa’s national household panel survey, the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) - which was first published in 2008.