Avinash Govindjee is Professor of Law, Head of the Department of Public Law and Deputy Head of the Labour and Social Security Law Unit at the Faculty of Law, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Avinash is an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa. He serves the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on a part-time basis as a Senior Commissioner and specialises in employment equity disputes. As a consultant to the Institute for Social Law and Policy (ISLP), he has been involved in a range of labour and social-security related projects for various government departments and agencies in SADC, most recently in relation to the introduction of return to work arrangements in South Africa and Namibia. Avinash, who is an National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher (category C2) and a member of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), has published widely in South Africa and abroad on themes broadly related to human rights, with specific emphasis on labour, social security and equality law.
Avinash has been the NMMU Faculty of Law Researcher of the Year for the past five years. He was included in the Mail & Guardian’s List of “200 Young South Africans” and the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s Top 40 under 40 list during 2013 and was a finalist in the Titans Building Nations Award for achievement in academia in 2014. During 2015, he was invited to join the prestigious African Leadership Network, a community of leaders working to create change in Africa and was nominated by the NRF as one of three South Africans to attend the Science in Technology and Society Summit in Kyoto, Japan.
This year Rhodes University selected him to receive the 2015 Emerging Old Rhodian Award - together with Ms Sikelelwa Mgabadeli - at the Annual General Meeting of the Old Rhodian Union that was held at the Gavin Reilly Postgraduate Village on 26 September 2015. At the same ceremony the Distinguished Old Rhodian awards were presented to Revd Dr S Gqubule and Dr Christopher Vaughan in gratitude for decades of seminal work.
Avinash was appointed by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation as a Mentor for scholarship-holders in 2008 and 2009 and has mentored for the Business Women’s Association for a number of years. He consults on an ad hoc, pro bono basis for the Port Elizabeth Justice Centre in impact litigation matters and is a member of Juta’s Annual Labour Law Seminar presentation team together with John Grogan and Puke Maserumule.
Govindjee_Publication list
Govindjee family, Dr Mabizela and Prof. Walker