Dakalo Singo

@werksmans — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:50:49 +0000

Dakalo Singo is a Director and Head of the Pro Bono practice. He specialises in constitutional, public interest and human rights law, general dispute resolution and civil litigation, as well as labour and employment law. Dakalo has authored several articles which have been published in law journals and is a contributing author to two textbooks on clinical legal education. He is the recipient of several awards for his contributions to social justice and was listed in Mail and Guardian’s ‘200 Young South Africans’ (2019 edition), an annual publication that recognises young South Africans making a positive impact in various fields.

Practice areas

Disputes
Employment
Pro Bono

Expertise

General dispute resolution and civil litigation
Constitutional law and human rights litigation
Labour and Employment law

Relevant Experience

Human rights, constitutional law and social justice issues;
Labour and employment law; and
General civil law matters.

Career

LLB (University of South Africa);
LLM (University of the Witwatersrand);
2017: Senior Associate, Werksmans
2019: Director, Werksmans

Highlights

Listed in Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans (2019) in the ‘Justice and Law’ category. See Mail & Guardian profile here.
Received two awards (in the “refugees” and “housing” categories) at the 2019 ProBono.Org Awards.
Advises and/or acts for various local and international non-governmental, civil society and social justice organisations.
Represented a group of asylum seekers in impact litigation brought against the Minister of Labour (and others) to challenge the constitutionality of certain aspects of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (“UIF”) statutory and structural framework, that excluded asylum seekers from being able to claim benefits from the UIF, despite the fact that they had made contributions to the UIF. A summary of the matter is available here. See also: Dakalo Singo “The case for asylum seekers’ entitlement to unemployment insurance fund benefits: Musanga v Minister of Labour” (South African Law Journal, Volume 137 Issue 3, p. 407-423 which can be accessed here.
Represented CASAC in President of the Republic of South Africa v Office of the Public Protector and Others (13 December 2017). The reported judgment can be accessed here.
Represented the SAHRC in the hate speech matter of South African Human Rights Commission v Khumalo (5 October 2018). A summary of the matter is available here, and the reported judgment can be accessed here.
Interviews and comments for various news media (radio, newspaper and television) regarding general legal issues.
Previously lectured Labour Dispute Resolution classes for the Legal Education and Development (LEAD) programme offered by the Law Society of South Africa (at Wits University).
Previously lectured law students at Wits University and continues to do so from time to time as a guest or sessional lecturer.
Previously served on the board of a local radio station.
Published an article in the Stellenbosch Law Review (Vol 27, No. 3, 2016) titled “The Role of South African University Law Clinics in the LLB Degree”.
Published a chapter, namely “Drafting Pleadings, Notices and Applications” in a text book titled “Clinical Law in South Africa” (3rd Edition, 2016), which is prescribed in various South African universities.
Published in “Law Clinics and the Clinical Law Movement in South Africa” (1st Edition, 2018) as a contributing author to two chapters.
Published an article (as a co-author) in the Stellenbosch Law Review (Vol 29, No. 2, 2018) titled “Clinical Legal Education and Social Justice – A Perspective from the Wits Law Clinic”.