Sechaba Mohapi

Date of Call: 04/12/2017

Before his call to the Bar, Sechaba was a Law Researcher at the Supreme Court of Appeal from 1 October 2014 until 25 January 2017.
He obtained his LL.B degree from the North West University and was awarded a distinction for his LL.B dissertation titled “Leave to Appeal and its impact on the Right to Appeal”. He contributed two articles to the South African Attorneys’ Journal, the De Rebus setting out an attorneys’ checklist for applications for leave to appeal to the SCA.
After completing his LL.B studies, Sechaba worked for two months as a student intern at the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, the parastatal charged with implementing the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) in Lesotho, a bi-national inter-basin water transfer scheme between RSA and Lesotho. There, Sechaba worked in the office of the Corporate Secretary under Legal Services within the Chief Executive’s office.
Sechaba was previously admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa, during which time he cut his teeth in Magistrates Court litigation at Phatshoane Henney Attorneys where he served corporate and private clients. He subsequently became a Supreme Court of Appeal Practice Area Manager at that same firm from October 2011 until March 2014 during which time he specialized in correspondent work on appeals to Supreme Court of Appeal.
Sechaba’s practice is mainly constituted of general commercial, regulatory and public law work. He was part of the Evidence Leader team of the Commission of inquiry into allegations of impropriety at the Public Investment Corporation in 2019.
For leisure, Sechaba reads and collects legal (auto)biographies and is interested in judicial matters and he immerses himself in legal history.
Sechaba appeared in the following notable reported and unreported matters: 

• Sasol Oil (Pty) Ltd v Commissioner for SARS [2019] 1 All SA 106 (SCA)
• Hlophe v Freedom Under Law In re: Freedom Under Law v Hlophe; Moseneke and Others v Hlophe In re: Hlophe v Judicial Services Commission and Others 2022 (2) SA 523 (GJ)
• Hlophe v Judicial Service Commission and Others [2022] 3 All SA 87 (GJ)
• Hospital Association of South Africa v Head of Department, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health and others [2022] 2 All SA 831 (KZP)
• Muhanelwa v Gcingca [2019] ZACC 21
• Rooplal N.O. v MML Foods Services Proprietary Limited [2021] ZALMPPHC 20 (2 February 2021)
• Malao v K Malao Inc and Others [2021] ZAGPPHC 503 (12 August 2021)
• Mawere v Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) and Others [2022] ZAGPJHC 177 (25 March 2022)

Sechaba has contributed the following publications:

• South African Chapter in Litigation & Dispute Resolution
• ‘O Son of Man, Can these bones live?: The need to resurrect the Commercial Court’ Advocate (Dec 2018) pp 52-56.
• ‘Revised checklist for leave to appeal to the SCA’ De Rebus (Apr 2015).
• ‘A grandparent’s duty of support’ De Rebus (Mar 2016).