Associate Professor Debbie Collier

 

After obtaining an LLB degree, Debbie completed pupillage and later articles and practiced as an attorney in the Eastern Cape, specialising in Labour, Electronic and Property Law until 2001 when she joined the UCT Law Faculty as an assistant lecturer and IT co-ordinator. Debbie is currently Associate Professor in the Commercial Law Department and Deputy Dean: Postgraduate studies. Debbie is a member of the Institute of Development and Labour Law (IDLL) and serves on the editorial board of the Development and Labour Monograph Series, an IDLL publication and is an associate of the Labour and Enterprise Project. She is involved in the teaching and supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate law students, as well as students outside of the Law Faculty.

 

Debbie researches in the field of law and development and her PhD focused on law and development in the context of intellectual property law. Her current research interests lie in employment law and development, specifically in the context of workplace discrimination and equality law.

Currently Head of Department of Commecial Law, Debbie's full profile is available on the Commercial Law site.

Dr Asanda Benya

 

Asanda Benya is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender, class and race. Her current research is an ethnographic study of women underground miners in South Africa’s platinum mines and looks at the construction of gendered subjectivities of women in the underground mining world. She has published in labour and feminist journals in areas of women in mining, gender and the extractive industries, labour and social movements, social and economic justice. In 2015 her article the “Invisible Hands: Women in Marikana” won the Review of African Political Economy’s (RoAPE) Ruth First Award and in 2010 her article, “If you Don’t Hear the Bell, You’re Mince: Woman’s Story of Mining Underground” won the Labour Media Award for the Best Journal Article. She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the African Humanities Program (AHP) fellowship (2019) and the Atlantic Fellowship on Racial Equity (AFRE) (2018).

 

She serves as an editorial board member of the Ubuntu Dialogues Project, and was also part of the South African Labour Bulletin’s Board. She is also active outside of the university as a board member of several national NGOs such as the Surplus People Project, the Bench-Marks Foundation’s Independent Problem-Solving Service Advisory Board, and Workers World Media Production.

Dr Emma Fergus

 

Emma Fergus is a senior lecturer in the Commercial Law Department at UCT. She teaches various courses, including two LLM courses entitled Collective Labour Law and Corporate Governance, Company Law and Labour Law. She was an active member of the erstwhile Institute of Development and Labour Law and is currently involved in various research projects with the Labour, Development and Governance Research Unit. Her primary research interests include all forms and aspects of workers' representation and organisational rights. Emma has published over 20 articles and book chapters, co-edited and co-authored the textbook Labour Law in South Africa: Context and Principles, and presented at numerous domestic and international conferences. She is also an admitted attorney of the Western Cape High Court.

 

Prof Rochelle Le Roux

 

Prof Le Roux a qualified attorney and conveyancer and practised with a law firm in Cape Town before joining academia in 1994. Currently she is a professor in the Faculty of Law, and lectures mainly labour law.

 

In 1990 she obtained a Master's degree in International Water Law from the University of Stellenbosch, but as a result of personal interest and the demands of practice, she developed an interest in labour law. In 2000 she obtained a PG Dip (Employment Law and Social Security) from the University of Cape Town and 2002 she graduated with another Master's degree (in Sports Law) from Anglia Ruskin University. In 2008 she graduated with a PhD in labour law from the University of Cape Town.

Since 2002 she regularly published in peer-reviewed/accredited journals on both labour law and sports law issues. In 2005 she published a book Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Law, Policies and Processes co-authored by Thandi Orleyn and Alan Rycroft. A further edition of this book, Harassment in the Workplace: Law, Policies and Processes, was published during August 2010.

Ms Bianca Tame

 

Bianca Tame is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. Previously she worked as a researcher at the Industrial Organisational and Labour Studies Unit at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her current research focuses on the commodification of an intimate work culture, the future of work and gender and migration. She co-authored two chapters in Labour beyond Cosatu: Mapping the rupture in South Africa's labour landscape edited by Bezuidenhout, A., & Tshoaedi, M. (2017). The book was shortlisted for the 2019 NIHSS non-fiction awards. Bianca is currently working with a team of scholars from various universities in South Africa on the Taking Democracy Seriously project which has been running since 1994. The project aims to examine workers’ notions and experiences of democracy in the trade union movement as well as at the broader societal level.
 

 

Associate organisations

Labour Research Services (LRS)

Centre for Transformative Regulation of Law (Law faculty, UWC)

Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ)