At the recent Research and Innovation Awards, Professor Rehana Cassim, who is an Associate Professor in Mercantile Law, won the Women in Research Leadership Prize for Excellence in Research. The award honours a woman researcher who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in research in the last five years.

Expressing her sentiment about winning and the significance of the Research and Innovation Awards, Cassim said that “I feel deeply honoured to receive this prize from Unisa. A prize such as this serves to motivate and encourage women to achieve their research goals. I am very grateful to Unisa, and in particular the Mercantile Law Department, for the support that they have given to me to conduct my research.”

Cassim’s field of research is company law under the Companies Act 71 of 2008. Her focus in recent years has been on boards of directors, and specifically on the misconduct and accountability of miscreant directors under the Act. She has focused on the accountability of boards of directors, the removal of directors, delinquency orders, and piercing the corporate veil of a company in instances of misconduct by a director of a company.

Prof Rehana Cassim, recipient of the Women in Research Leadership Prize for Excellence in Research at the recent R&I Awards

Asked what factors influenced her to choose this field of research, she said: “I realised that I have a passion for research when I was appointed as a research assistant at the Constitutional Court for the Honourable Justice Albie Sachs and the Honourable Justice Zak Yacoob several years ago. I first established my career as an attorney and notary public. Prior to joining the academic field, I practised as an attorney for a few years in the Corporate Law Department of Bowmans Attorneys and thereafter at Rooth and Wessels. I was exposed to the practical side of company law when I was in practice. I found it to be fascinating. It is for these reasons that I chose company law as my field of research.”

There could not have been a more deserving candidate to win this award than Cassim. The list of her research highlights and other achievements serve as evidence to the fact that she has over her academic career constantly demonstrated outstanding research outputs. Among many of the achievements that point to Cassim as a leader in a research include publishing in journal articles and also chapters in books. She is also a co-author of four books on company law and a sole author of another book on company law. This book is housed in international libraries, including Leiden University Library and Harvard Law School Library.

Cassim’s research has been cited with approval and quoted in High Court judgments, loose-leaf scholarly reference books, and local and international journal articles. Another one of her highlights also includes a live media interview as an expert in company law on eNews Channel Africa. In local academic contexts, her impact is not just on reference and for recognition internally at Unisa. Cassim has also written in a practical loose-leaf practitioners’ book on the Companies Act aimed at legal practitioners and chartered secretaries, which has been published in a short course for the University of Johannesburg.

Furthermore, she has also mentored junior colleagues in her department and co-published articles with them. She has also supervised several postgraduate students to completion and is currently supervising a number of master’s and doctoral students. Cassim also continues to contribute to the advancement of research in her capacity first as an Assistant Editor and now as a Deputy Editor of the South African Mercantile Law Journal.

Like a gift that keeps giving, Cassim is also actively involved in community engagement projects that have made a positive contribution. For example, she introduced a new topic in the Street Law Flagship on Business Entities and Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur. Prior to this development, the Street Law flagship did not offer any commercial or business-related topics in the Street Law Project. The idea underlying this topic is to empower communities to start and run a basic business.

*By Tshimangadzo Mphaphuli, Senior Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement