Zethu Cakata currently works as a full professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Africa. Her scholarship interests are in indigenous African ways of understanding human sciences, particularly psychology, African Psychology, re-Africanisation of curriculum through language. She also explores phenomena such names and naming practices, ethics around studying indigenous phenomena and research methodology.

She has published on the need to center African knowledge in higher education curriculum with titles on the spiritual meaning of what is today known as lobola, the cultural embeddedness of African Psychology and the spiritness of African knowledge. In her work she also uses metaphoric language as the reliable site of African epistemology.

Zethu previously worked as a researcher and lecturer in institutions such as Statistics South Africa, Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria and Human Sciences Research Council. She was recently awarded the Teaching & Learning award by Unisa for her scholarly contributions in teaching, research, and community engagement.