The Institute was established in 2007 by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs as the South African National Liberation Institute of Technology, Philosophy and Political Science (SANLITPPS). It was incorporated formally as the Moses Kotane Institute in 2009 as a non-profit company, registered in terms of the Companies Act of 2008 and started operating in 2010. Since then, it has been evolving to what it is today, a research agency for the provincial government of the KwaZulu-Natal.