As part of our Centenary celebrations, the Wits School of Law will be hosting a series of Fireside Chats with prominent people in the legal profession.
Wits Law Head of School, Professor Engela Schlemmer, will be in conversation with Mr Otsile Matlou, COO of ENSafrica.
Ostile graduated from the School of Law with an LLB (2000) and an HDip in tax law (2002). He is now the Chief Operating Officer of the biggest law firm in Africa.
Join us for a conversation about his time at Wits as a law student, and a student activist, his experience practising law, and his views on the legal profession and challenges facing the country and the continent.
The Wits School of Law conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and alumni to discuss and share knowledge and experiences of the law.
#WitsLaw2022 is an open-ended and collaborative conference that covers diverse and unique areas of law.
A primary component of Wits Law 2022 is its interface between academia and practice.
How can the practice of the law inform the study of the law?
How do the ideas and theories within the study of the law inform the practice of the law?
What are the stories and experiences of the law in everyday South African society?
And what do these narratives reveal about the practice, study, and the theorisation of the law?
A secondary component of Wits Law 2022 is to connect with Wits Law School alumni.
This is an opportunity not only to reflect on your own journey in the law, but to reconnect with you. Where are you in the world? What have you accomplished with your law degree? And how can you use your law degree and experience to benefit current and prospective Wits law students? Wits Law 2022 will offer an opportunity to connect as alumni, and we hope to solidify linkages going forward through, for example, the formation of a Wits Law School Alumni Association.
Wits Law Professor appointed Chairperson of National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council
- Kim Jurgensen
Professor Firoz Cachalia has been appointed chairperson of the newly established National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council.
The School of Law is delighted to announce that Professor Firoz Cachalia has been appointed chairperson of the newly established National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council. Professor Cachalia is the Director of the Mandela Institute, which is part of the Law School.
The role of the Advisory Council is to advise the President on implementation of the anti-corruption strategy, which was adopted by Cabinet two years ago, and to look at how the Zondo Commission recommendations should be executed.
Professor Cachalia said the Council creates a conduit for engagement between the state (through the presidency) and civil society. “That dialogue which is now being institutionalised is where the potential of this lies, in that the Council can be a vehicle for society to mobilise around anti-corruption issues which is critical in the fight against corruption” said Cachalia.
The Council is mandated to hold public imbizos which Cachalia says will be part of responding to the public call to end the widespread corruption that characterised the state capture years. “If we are producing good ideas, comparative research and studies, and also mobilising pressures and momentum from society...that contributes to culture change” he added.
Professor Cachalia said he was deeply honoured with this appointment and was looking forward to playing a role in rebuilding the country after years of corruption. “This slide into venality was so disconcerting. So deeply wounding for all of us who went through that period of struggle with ennobling ideals and high aspirations”. He believes the work of the Council, and the broader fight against corruption, will be successful because of “the fortitude, the resilience and the idealism of South Africans. It gives me enormous pride and hope”.
Cachalia says he carries his Wits connection into this new work which will combine public engagement, policy interrogation and academic research to give the soundest advice to the Presidency. “I am up for the challenge to honour our generation and all those who struggled against apartheid. I do this out of a deep commitment to this country and its future. I can’t be weighed down by pessimism and despair – we have to rise above that and do what we can to rebuild this country.”
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