Staff
The Law Faculty has a core of committed staff and an established research base within which the centre is positioned. The CCLA staff includes:
Professor Ada Ordor is the Director of the CCLA. She is the convener of the Comparative Business Law in Africa LLM programme and teaches on its two core courses, Law Regional Integration and Development in Africa (LRIDA) and Comparative Law and Business in Africa (CLBA). Her research interests are in the broad field of law and development in Africa, including the legal environment for civil society initiatives through the non-profit sector.
Professor Faizel Ismail is the Director of the UCT Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, having pursued a distinguished diplomatic career for over two decades, including a long term as South Africa’s Chief Trade Negotiator and subsequently Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation from 2010 to 2014. He is also on the advisory board of the CCLA and contributes to CCLA’s postgraduate courses as expert guest lecturer on the African Continental Free Trade Area and Economic Partnership Agreements.
Emeritus Professor Evance Kalula, for close to three decades, served in various capacities at UCT, including as long-term Director of the Institute of Development and Labour Law, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Law, Executive Director of UCT’s International Academic Programme (IAPO) and Director of the Confucius Institute. He has also served as President of the International Labour Relations Association and currently chairs the ILO Freedom of Association Committee. Prof Kalula was instrumental to securing the sustainability for the CCLA and is a member of its advisory board.
A research partner at the CCLA, Dr Oyeniyi Abe is a law teacher, author, and policy consultant, with expertise in business and human rights, sustainable development, environmental law, natural resources and extractive industries law, in respect of which he has published extensively and provided expert advice. His work has analysed the shortcomings of adaptation and resilience planning as applicable to Nigeria’s Niger-Delta. He is currently investigating how constitutional and governance organizations can create transformative change for the people. A prolific researcher and speaker, he sits on the Executive Council of the International Law Association, Nigerian Branch and is a member of the International Bar Association, and the Nigerian Bar Association. Oyeniyi has studied in Nigeria, Hungary, South Africa, and the United States, where he spent time as a Fulbright Scholar at Loyola University, Chicago. He is the author of Business and Human Rights Law and Practice in Africa (Routledge, 2022).
Dr Nojeem Amodu is a CCLA research partner. His PhD thesis on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility won the Best PhD Thesis in Humanities award at the University of Lagos in 2017. His expertise and research interests are in comparative corporate law, business and human rights and international economic law. He is the author of Corporate Social Responsibility and Law in Africa: Theories, Issues and Practices (Routledge, 2020).
Dr Tsotang Tsietsi is a CCLA research partner. Dr Tsietsi holds an LLB from the National University of Lesotho, an LLM in International Economic Law from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral research was on trade facilitation in the Southern African Development Community, with a focus on the implications of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement on the facilitation of trade in the region. Tsotang is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Postgraduate Programmes at the National University of Lesotho. As a policy consultant, she has advised private firms, governments, and international organisations. Her research interests include trade facilitation, trade and development and African regional integration. She is a contributing editor to Afronomicslaw.org and a member of the editorial board of the African Journal of International Economic Law (AfJIEL).
Dr Augustine Arimoro is a Lecturer in Law at The University of Roehampton, London. He was previously a lecturer at the Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University and an associate lecturer at St Mary’s University London. Augustine’s PhD, conducted at the CCLA, examined the role of law in enhancing a conducive business environment for private sector participation in public infrastructure delivery. His expertise and keen research interests include legal frameworks for business in emerging economies, public-private partnership law and equality rights. He is the author of Public-Private Partnerships in Emerging Economies (Routledge, 2020) and is a research partner of the CCLA.
Dr Oluwatoyin Badejogbin is a CCLA research partner. He has a lengthy career in public interest law, specializing in human rights, counter-terrorism and criminal justice, among others. He has a PhD in Criminal Justice from UCT, where he also worked as Advocacy and Policy Lead for the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit, an applied research unit.
Dr Jonathan Bashi Rudahindwa is a CCLA research partner. He taught General Commercial Law, Foreign Exchange Regulations, Investment Law and OHADA and Regional Integration in Africa at Université Protestante au Congo (Kinshasa, D.R. Congo) and has been involved in the teaching of the courses, Law and Development, as well as Legal Systems of Asia and Africa at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of the highly recommended book, Regional Developmentalism through Law: Establishing an African Economic Community (Routledge, 2018).
Dr Victor Amadi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA). He holds the LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His research interests are in international trade law, comparative regional integration and development. His doctoral thesis examined the facilitation of intra-regional trade through the movement of people in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He has published a number of research articles in peer reviewed journals including a routledge-published book in 2022 titled: Trade, Migration and Law: Free Movement of Persons in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Dr Julieth Gudo who holds both an LLM and a PhD degree from the University of Cape Town is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA). Her research interests are in corporate governance in state-owned enterprises in Africa, and the role of non-governmental organisations in advancing good governance on the continent. Her doctoral thesis examined the use of legal provisions by civil society organisations to advance corporate governance in state-owned enterprises in South Africa. After completing her PhD degree, Dr Gudo published a book with Routledge Publishers in 2024 titled: Civil Society Organisations and State-Owned Enterprises in South Africa: Advancing Accountability and Corporate Governance.
Dr Yakubu Nagu is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA). He is an alumnus of the University of Abuja, Nigeria where he earned his LLB (Hons) and is admitted to the Nigerian Bar. Dr Nagu holds LLM and PhD degrees in International Trade Law and Commercial Law respectively from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include international trade law, comparative regional integration, business law in Africa, and law and development studies. His doctoral thesis examined the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), identifying the indices for an enabling framework for its implementation in the selected country case studies of Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. Utilising Lee’s Analytical Law and Development Model, his research advanced the Analytical Law and Development Integration Model (ALDIM), which identifies in regional integration theories, workable parameters for evaluating the developmental potential of regional trade integration initiatives between participating states. His forthcoming book Regional Trade Agreements in Africa: Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (Routledge 2025) advances the broader research on the AfCFTA and contributes to its ongoing discourse.
Dr Raisa Nyirongo is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, where she is advancing the subject matter of her doctoral research. Raisa earned an LLB degree from the Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth and an LLM from the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral thesis, titled "Navigating Compliance Challenges in African Regional Integration," examined institutional mechanisms for compliance with regional agreements by countries making up various regional economic communities on the continent. Dr Nyirongo’s research feeds into the CCLA’s teaching, particularly the course on Law and Regional Integration in Africa, offered both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr Nyirongo is also on the editorial team of the CCLA’s Journal of Comparative Law in Africa.