10th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture with Minister of Justice Michael Masutha

The Community Law Centre is happy to announce that, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Honourable Tshililo Michael Masutha is set to deliver the 10th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture on 19 August 2015. The Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture Series celebrates the memory of the former Minister of Justice and the first director of the Community Law Centre, Adv Dullah Omar, who worked tirelessly towards, and achieved so much, in realising the goals of human rights and democracy.

Honourable Masutha has been a Member of Parliament since 1999 and he has served on a number of committees, including the Justice and Constitutional Development Committee, the Rules Committee and the Constitutional Review Committee. He chaired the Social Development Committee, the Standing Committee on the Auditor General, the Subcommittee on Review of Rules the Adhoc Committee on Delegated Legislation, the Ad Hoc Committee that nominated the current Public Protector. He also served on the Judicial Service Commission from 2004 to 2009, and is currently serving on the Magistrates Commission. In July 2013 he was appointed as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.

He studied for a BJuris Degree at the University of Limpopo (then the University of the North) from 1985 to 1988, and obtained an LLB Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1989. While studying, he became passionate about the rights of people with disabilities, and founded and participated in movements for disabled students at universities respectively, advocating for the provision of appropriate support, and challenging the apartheid regime’s treatment of the blind and other disabled people.

The Lecture was instituted in 2004 to commemorate the life of Adv Dullah Omar, the founding Director of the Community Law Centre. Previous speakers included former President Thabo Mbeki, Justice Albie Sachs, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and the late former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson.