Professor Jane Ndlovu is an Associate Professor at the Margo Steele School of Accountancy at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa. Professor Ndlovu also was an AfOx fellow based at the Centre for Business Taxation, Saïd Business School and affiliated with St Cross college at the University of Oxford. Her work explores the intersection of fiscal policy, gender, and inequality in developing countries. Professor Ndlovu explores how fiscal systems can either reinforce or reduce inequality—and why context matters more than ever.
Tax is not neutral—it's a mirror of our values
At the heart of my research lies a deceptively simple question: Is the tax system fair for everyone? And if not, what needs to change?
As a tax researcher with a background in accountancy and a current focus on law, I’ve come to see taxation not just as a technical system, but as a reflection of what societies value. Tax policy shapes how resources are distributed, who carries the fiscal burden, and who is left behind. Yet, it is often treated as neutral or purely economic. It is anything but.
My work focuses on how fiscal policy interacts with gender inequality and structural disadvantage, particularly in the lower to middle income countries in Africa. I use an interdisciplinary approach, combining doctrinal legal analysis with insights from economics and development studies to investigate how tax systems can either reinforce or reduce inequality. Specifically, I interrogate how tax provisions, whether explicitly or implicitly, affect women and other historically marginalised groups.
Ultimately, I hope my work contributes to evidence-based reform, helping policymakers design tax systems that are more just, inclusive, and contextually appropriate.
From Johannesburg to Oxford: A tale of two cities
This work is deeply personal for me as a South African woman. I’ve witnessed how tax policies, often seen as neutral, can have deeply gendered and unequal consequences. My daily commute in Johannesburg, often spent in traffic, contrasts sharply with my experience in Oxford, where I walked everywhere. That difference isn’t just about infrastructure—it’s about fiscal design.
Oxford’s congestion charge and zero-emission zone are examples of progressive environmental policy. But would such a policy work in Johannesburg?
In South Africa, private vehicle use is often a necessity. Public transport is limited, unreliable, and sometimes unsafe. Imposing a congestion charge without addressing these structural limitations risks punishing those already facing economic and social hardship. What might be an environmentally progressive solution in one city could deepen inequality in another.
This is the core of my research, that is fiscal policies, however well-intended, can produce unequal outcomes when copied across borders without considering local context.
Time, tools, and people during my fellowship
The Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) Visiting Fellows Programme, supported by the Female Academic Leaders Fellowship (FALF), helped bring this project to life. My time at Oxford gave me access to resources I wouldn’t ordinarily have like the Bodleian Library and the space to think and write without interruption.
Just as importantly, it gave me people, a network of collaborators, mentors, and friends. I was affiliated with St Cross College, a vibrant and diverse scholarly community that became my intellectual home. There, I met Dr Kevin Marsh, one of the founding figures behind AfOx, and many others who challenged and inspired my thinking.
My primary collaborator is Dr Jawad Shah, an economist at the Centre for Business Taxation at the Saïd Business School. Together, we bring different lenses to the same problem. I contribute legal analysis and insights from the Global South; he brings economic models and comparative development perspectives. The most exciting outcome so far is that we’ve identified gaps in how gender is conceptualised in tax law across jurisdictions.
This discovery will shape the next phase of our research, comparing South African tax law with that of developed countries like the UK to assess how different fiscal regimes reflect or resist gendered inequality.
Why collaboration and context matters
Policies do not operate in a vacuum. They must be interrogated within their specific context, lest we risk doing harm in the name of progress. Whether it’s a congestion charge or a tax incentive, the question remains: Who can pay? Who benefits? Who is left behind?
Through interdisciplinary, cross-country collaboration, I hope to contribute to a more inclusive understanding of fiscal justice, one that recognises the lived realities of those most affected by policy decisions.
About the AfOx Visiting Fellowship Programme
The AfOx Visiting Fellowship Programme is designed to allow exceptional African researchers to build international networks and focus on a project of their choice in collaboration with Oxford-based scholars
Visit www.afox.ox.ac.uk/research/afox_visiting_fellowship_programme for more information