Bulelwa Mabasa
Phone +27 11 535 8309
Email bmabasa@werksmans.com
Location Johannesburg
Name / Surname Bulelwa Mabasa

Bulelwa Mabasa

Head of Land Reform

Bulelwa Mabasa is a Director and Head of the Land Reform Practice. Her expertise is spread across a number of key practice areas which includes the following: Dispute Resolution; which includes land reform, restitution and tenure law, administrative and constitutional law; tenders and procurement; due diligence investigations; expropriation litigation; mining regulatory and mining litigation and banking litigation. Bulelwa is a leader in her field given her appointment by President Cyril Ramaphosa to serve as the only attorney on the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform in 2018 and her authorship of the publication titled Land in South Africa: Contested Meanings and Nation-Formation. Bulelwa has also contributed to major journals and publications on Land Reform and Women. She was awarded Best in Land Rights and Best in Thought Leadership, Innovation and Academia, at the Women in Law (WOZA) awards ceremony, that was hosted in July 2022. She also published a memoir titled My Land Obsession and named as the winner in thr Best Non-Fiction category for 2023 by the Sunday Times Literary Awards.

Years of Experience: 21 years

Litigation & Dispute Resolution

  • Land Reform, Redistribution, Restitution and Land Claims litigation
  • Dispute Resolution
  • Administrative Constitutional Law
  • Mining
  • Customary and Communal Land Rights Law

Advised / Represented / Acted on behalf of:

  • high-profile clients in disputes pertaining to land reform, restitution, administrative law, such as tenders and procurement , eviction law and mining litigation  in the High Court, and Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Courts.

  • 2019: Head of Land Reforem Restitution & Tenure Practice.
  • 2013: Postgraduate Certificate in Land and Water Law, University of the Witwatersrand – Nelson Mandela Institute
  • 2011: Postgraduate Certificate in Prospecting and Mining, University of the Witwatersrand – Nelson Mandela Institute
  • 2008: Director, Werksmans
  • 2004: Admitted as an Attorney
  • 2002: University of the Witwatersrand
  • 2000: BA, University of the Witwatersrand

  • Her memoir My Land Obsession won for Alan Paton, now Sunday Times Literary Award, for Best Non-Fiction book for 2023.
  • Bulelwa was awarded Best in Land Rights (First Runner Up) and Best in Thought Leadership, Innovation and Academia (Second Runner Up), at the Women in Law (WOZA) awards ceremony, that was hosted in July 2022.
  • Bulelwa was awarded Best Woman Lawyer in Land Rights at the Women in Law (WOZA) awards ceremony during August 2019, based on her contribution not only to Werksmans in this sector but also, the key role Bulelwa plays in Land Reform policy in South Africa having been appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to his Land Advisory Panel.
  • Bulelwa was appointed in 2018 as one of the panel members on the Expert Advisory Panel to the President on Land Reform. She is the only attorney on the panel.
  • Author of Land in South Africa: Contested Meanings and Nation-Formation.
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