During a political career, Dr. Coetzee Bester served from 1994 to 1999 as a Member of the South African Parliament under the Presidency of Mr. Nelson Mandela and in the Office of President FW de Klerk. During this time, he was also a member of the Constitution Writing Assembly that finalise the historic 1996 post-apartheid constitution for South Africa.

Since 1999 he facilitated leadership schools in 35 African countries. During this time, he also assisted various governments with policy formulation towards sustainable development in Africa as well as the management of challenges related to radicalism, racism, ethnic violence and cultural diversity. Further to this his political focus included policy development programmes, the design of election campaigns and management of free and fair elections.

Based on his Anthropological research and information management experience in Africa he completed a master’s degree (Cum Laude) at the University of Pretoria. This study designed an integrated model for management of information in community development projects in Africa. He also lectured on the topic in Pretoria, Africa, the USA, Europe and Russia.

In 2018 he completed a PhD with focused research on teaching Information Ethics at universities, in communities and in schools in Africa. In this study, he addressed cultural diversity, sustainable development, policy development and volunteerism in the 4th Industrial Era. He was involved in writing of 14 books and various academic articles about Information Ethics in Africa. The latest publication was the recent Nelson Mandela Reader on Information Ethics.

Until June 2020, he served as the Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Information Ethics (ACEIE) that is based at the University of Pretoria and operated on an academic platform of 112 academic institutions in 22 African countries. During this time, he was also active in various international UNESCO programmes and projects. His current research focus on ethical Artificial Intelligence and the sustainable development of smart governance for smart cities and smart communities.

He was born in Pretoria in 1957 and attended primary school (Laerskool Die Poort) and secondary school (Hoërskool FH Odendaal) in Pretoria. He studied at the University of Pretoria and he and his family, including 4 grandchildren, all lives in Pretoria.