Zethu has been involved in LGBTQ activism since the early 1990s. Having been part of Uthingo Womyn's Group (one of the few lesbian feminist collectives in South Africa) and later part of Free Gender, a black lesbian organisation in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Within the academic space she has been involved with the #RhodesMustFall movement at the University of Cape Town as well as one of the founding members of the Black Academic Caucus at the same institution. Her films and curated works including Jo'burg TRACKS: Sexuality in the City, and a book project Reclaiming Afrikan: queer perspectives on sexual and gender identities similarly engage with LGBT activism. Her first co-production Breaking Out of the Box: Stories of black lesbians (2011) has been shown both within South Africa and abroad. Her work with documentary films also includes writing the short film Rise.[3]
She has published on queer issues, sexuality, gender, race, HIV and AIDS, African film, cinema and photography. She is an active member of the Black Academic Caucus through which she published a few thought pieces, some of which are listed below.
Zethu Matebeni. 2015. Well-Suited. In Raél Jero Salley (ed). PROMISE. Cape Town: ACTSA Publishing, 14-19.
Zethu Matebeni. 2014. My best participants' informed consent. In Deborah Posel and Fiona Ross (eds.), Ethical quandaries in social research. Pretoria: HSRC Press, 111-124.
Zethu Matebeni. 2013. Deconstructing violence towards black lesbians in South Africa. In Sokari Ekine and Hakima Abbas (eds), Queer African Reader. Fahamu Books, 343-354.
Zethu Matebeni. 2012. Feminizing Lesbians, Degendering Transgender Men: A Model for Building Lesbian Feminist Thinkers and Leaders in Africa? In Shaka McGlotten and Dana-Ain Davis (eds). Black Genders and Sexualities. Palgrave Macmillan, pp 187–193.
Matebeni, Zethu. 2011. TRACKS: Researching Sexualities Walking AbOUT the city of Johannesburg. In Tamale, Sylvia (ed). African Sexuality Reader. Oxford: Fahamu Books, 50-56.