Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza (born 31 October 1949) is a South African lawyer, public speaker, author and political activist born in

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ban ...

, now the

Umtata Mthatha , formerly Umtata, is the main city of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in Eastern Cape province of South Africa and the capital of OR Tambo District Municipality. The city has an airport, previously known as the K. D. Matan ...

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

. Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza is his brother. He is the chairman of the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and a trustee of the

Nelson Mandela Foundation Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. He was involved in the political struggle against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

in the mid-1970s, when he served time in prison during which he completed his law degree. Ntsebeza emerged as a commissioner of the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

in 1995. Ntsebeza was appointed chancellor of the

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

in January 2017.

Career

Ntsebeza has been in the practice of the law for over thirty years. He was an attorney for about 17 years. From 1993 he taught the law of evidence and criminal law and from 1995, human rights law at

Walter Sisulu University Walter Sisulu University (WSU) is a university of technology and science located in Mthatha, East London (Buffalo City), Butterworth and Komani (Queenstown) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, which came into existence on 1 July 2005 as a result o ...

in Mthatha. He gave up teaching when he was appointed as one of the commissioners on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from December 1995 to January 1999. In 2005, he became the first African to be conferred silk status in the history of the Cape Bar. Ntsebeza practices general law, including

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

and

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are gener ...

labour law Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...

, mining law and

land law Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use a ...

. He has chaired a number of disciplinary actions, and presided on several arbitrations. He is a trained arbitrator and qualified commercial mediator. Ntsebeza has also sat as a judge in various divisions of the high court of South Africa.NtsebezaBiographySA

References

1949 births Living people 20th-century South African lawyers 21st-century South African lawyers {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub