Sibusiso Tshabalala

Sibusiso Tshabalala’s story is one of resilience and leadership. Once in temporary accommodation, he built a stable home for his young family and now uses that lived experience to shape housing policy ensuring social housing residents achieve better outcomes and services.

Resident-Led Leadership and Social-Equity Placemaking

Sibusiso Tshabalala, Green Party Councillor for Bristol Central Ward, combines lived experience, social-enterprise insight, and policy leadership to create neighbourhoods shaped by residents, not bureaucracy. His earlier placemaking projects in St Paul’s and Hotwells, delivered through his enterprise Cognitive Paths, focused on building trust, amplifying community voices, and tackling systemic barriers to representation.

In St Paul’s, Sibusiso worked with UWE Architecture students on a Live Projects collaboration exploring how neglected green spaces could be reactivated through community stewardship. Residents highlighted safety, litter, and anti-social behaviour as barriers to use, leading to proposals for horizontal partnership models where local groups take shared responsibility for green spaces.

In Hotwells, the Placemaking: Clifton & Hotwells Muted Communities study revealed hidden deprivation and a shortage of inclusive facilities, such as the under-used Jacobs Wells Baths. Sibusiso’s work identified the importance of restoring accessible, multifunctional community hubs designed with, not for, residents.

He now applies these insights to his work in Redcliffe and Kingsdown, promoting tiered, block-level engagement and community-led estate improvements. As a council tenant and member of the Homes and Housing Committee, Sibusiso ensures tenant voices help shape housing strategy and neighbourhood investment.

His leadership aligns with the Resident Engagement Task and Finish Group which he chaired, which called for more participatory models of governance, engagement and estate design. He advocates co-designed frameworks where residents define consultation processes and maintain clear feedback loops, building trust and accountability.

For Sibusiso, placemaking is more than design, it is a democratic practice that rewires how power is shared. His vision for Bristol Central puts social equity, local ownership, and practical collaboration at the heart of urban renewal, demonstrating how lived experience can drive lasting, systemic change across the city.