Capacity: Attorney
Admission as an attorney: 2000
Race: Coloured
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: October 1967
Qualifications: BA (1989) LLB (1998) LLM (2011) (University of Witwatersrand)
Key Judgments
- Nkgoeng and Others v Regional Land Claims Commissioner Limpopo Province and Others (2025) ZALCC 46
- Khiba and Others v Van Niekerk and Others (2025) ZALCC 18
- Dreyer N.O and Others v Witbooi and Others (2024) ZALCC 45
Candidate Bio | Updated February 2025:
Diana Mabasa is a legal practitioner who has practised as an attorney for over 20 years and recently served as an Acting Judge of the Land Court.
Prior to her admission as a legal practitioner in 2000, Mabasa completed her BA at the University of Witwatersrand. It was her career as an insurance claims official following her BA that inspired her to return to Wits University to complete her LLB before articling as a law clerk at Routledge-Modise Attorneys. Mabasa’s career has included several new beginnings. Immediately following admission, she worked for the South African Claims Manager Ltd. (2000-1), De Vries Inc. (2002-3), and TP Mabasa Inc. (2004-14), where she first practised property law and was elevated to Director. While at TP Mabasa Inc., Mabasa completed her LLM at Wits.
Mabasa’s career and coursework underscore her commitment to constitutional principles and access to justice, with her thesis focusing on the environmental rights of impoverished communities affected by mining activities and authoring the LexisNexis award-winning article, “Ukuthwala: is it culturally relative?“ (2015), and Women Judges: Are they doing justice to the cause? (2016). The former argues for an overhaul in the manner in which lawyers and policymakers view ukuthwala, to be considered detrimental to black women and girls through the intersection of age, race, gender, and cultural discrimination, instead of customary tradition. The latter explores the influence of gender diversity in the judiciary and advocates for the implementation of feminist analytical tools into judicial critiques.
Mabasa’s next pivot took her from lawyer to acting judge in 2014. Since then, Mabasa has sat on the Gauteng High Court bench twice. Ten years after her first stint at the High Court, Mabasa was temporarily appointed as acting judge of the Land Court of South Africa (June-December 2024). As Land Court acting judge, Mabasa drafted mediation rules and represented the Court at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s property law teachers’ colloquium, furthering the Judge President’s vision of introducing Land Justice to the law school curriculum.
Mabasa wrote multiple judgments during her 69 weeks of acting at the Land Court. In Nkgoeng, Mabasa referred to the historic implications of apartheid’s “Betterment Schemes” as “a tool for entrenching the apartheid system of racial segregation and economic exploitation” whose effects contributed to increased “landlessness, poverty, and dependence on the migrant labour system.” Furthermore, in holding that a land claim was lodged on behalf of the entire Ga-Matlala community despite its initial filing by a single individual, Mabasa emphasised that treating this claim as purely individual “undermines the constitutional objective of restoring communal rights and delivering restorative justice.”
In Khiba, the question before Mabasa regarded whether the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from Lawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) was used to evade the protections of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) when a farm dweller and her family were evicted, their home demolished, and their belongings removed and lost. Mabasa found the eviction unlawful, reasoning that the manner of eviction and purposeful circumvention of ESTA infringed on the Applicant’s rights to “human dignity, adequate housing, and security of tenure.”
Mabasa’s professional career is broad and enriched by her various work and academic experiences. With significant acting experience and involvement in the functions of the court, it will be interesting to see whether her next big pivot is a full-time position at the Land Court of South Africa.
April 2026 Interview:
After deliberations, the Judicial Service Commission has resolved not to recommend any candidate to be appointed to the Land Court and to leave the vacancy open.