Koena Patrick Thantsha holds a BA Honours Degree specializing in Criminology. During his studies, he was involved in a research project as a data collector for service delivery survey for Local municipalities in Limpopo Province. In 2014 he worked as a research intern at the Department of Civilian Secretariat for Police, involved in research projects such as The Effect of Firearms Control Legislations on Crime in South Africa and Formulation of Anti-Gang Strategy. He also holds a certificate in Policy Writing, Implementation and Evaluation from Regenesys School of Public Management. He is currently working as an Immigration Officer at the  Department of Home Affairs dealing with migrants from the different parts of the globe on a daily basis.

His research explores the role of informal transport operators (omalayitsha), in transporting people, goods and services across borders and a case study of the informal taxi operators who ply the South African-Bulawayo, Zimbabwe route. His interests also lie in investigating the role of informal taxi operators, how they operate, the type of goods and services they transport across borders, the challenges and how they manoeuvre through them.