Academic profile

Dr Zingaphi Mabe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mercantile Law and holds the degrees LLB, LLM and PhD (Pret).

Academic and professional experience

Dr Mabe started her academic career in 2007 as an Academic Associate in the Law Faculty of the University of Pretoria. She has also completed her articles of clerkship and is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa. After spending time in legal practice and having also worked as a legal advisor, Dr Mabe returned to academia in 2012 where she worked as a lecturer at the Midrand Graduate Institute (currently known as Pearson Institute of Higher Education) and alongside a contract lecturer appointment at Unisa. In 2012 Dr Mabe was employed as a permanent full time Lecturer at Unisa and was in 2017 promoted to the position Senior Lecturer in the same institution. Dr Mabe makes a contribution on insolvency law to the Juta Quarterly Reviews and the Juta Yearbook. Dr Mabe was also the managing co-ordinating editor for the Annual Survey of South African Law and was the recipient of the University of Pretoria’s Postgraduate Bursary for Masters and Doctoral students.

Teaching activities

Mabe is currently teaching Insolvency Law. 

Areas of specialisation

Dr Mabe’s research focuses on the implications of the Constitution on insolvent estates and insolvent debtors. She has published nine articles in accredited journals and her current work concerns the statutory limitations imposed on insolvent debtors.

Recent publications

• (Co-authored): Mabe, Z and Mbiriri, E ‘The Payout of a Life Insurance Policy into an Unrehabilitated Insolvent's Estate: Malcolm Wentzel v Discovery Life Limited: In Re Botha v Wentzel (1001/19) [2020] ZASCA 121 (2 October 2020)’ 2022(25) PER / PELJ1‒27.

• Vesting of the assets of a solvent spouse and customary marriages in South Africa 2019 (82) THRHR.

• Alternatives to bankruptcy in South Africa that provides for a discharge of debts: lessons from Kenya PER/PELJ (2019) (22).

• Insolvency of a purchaser in terms of an instalment sale agreement: Sekgothe v Wesbank Limited [2017] JOL 36754 (GJ) (2018) 81 THRHR.

• Notice of intention to surrender as an abuse of sequestration process: Nedbank Limited v Malan; In re: Ex parte application of Malan [2015] JOL 33458 (GP) (2017) 80.4 THRHR 697.

• Section 27 of the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936 as a violation of the equality clause of the Constitution of South Africa: A critical analysis PER/PELJ (2016) (19).

• Setting aside transactions from pyramid schemes as impeachable dispositions under South African insolvency legislation PER/PELJ (2016) (19).

• Life and other insurance policy benefits and the property of an insolvent person (2015) 78.2 THRHR 237.

• Abuse of Sequestration Proceedings in South Africa Re-Visited, SA Merc LJ (2014) 26

Recent conference papers 

• Mabe, Z "The vesting of the assets of a solvent spouse and customary marriages in South Africa." Insol International Annual Regional Conference (Academics Colloquium): in Singapore, 1-3 April 2019.
• Mabe, Z  "Alternatives to bankruptcy in South Africa: lessons from Kenya"Insol International Annual Regional Conference (Academics Colloquium) held in London, UK, 11-13 July 2018.
• Mabe, Z "The abuse of insolvency proceedings in South Africa by a debtor to halt sales in execution"Society of Law Teachers of Southern Africa [SLTSA] conference held in Swakopmund, Namibia 16 to 20 January 2017.
• Mabe, Z "Notice of intention to surrender as an abuse of sequestration process: Nedbank Limited v Malan; In re: Ex parte application of Malan [2015] JOL 33458 (GP)." Personal Insolvency Conference held at the Rydes Southbank, Brisbane, Australia from 7-9 September 2016.
• Mabe, Z "The exclusion of life and disability insurance benefits from an insolvent estate and the effect on third parties" Insol International Annual Regional Conference (Academics Colloquium) in San Francisco, March 2015.
• Mabe,Z "The exclusion of life and disability insurance benefits from an insolvent estate and the effect on third parties" Southern African Law Teachers Conference at our Durban North Campus, Varsity College, Durban from 06 to 08 July 2015.
• Mabe, Z " Life and other insurance policy benefits and the property of an insolvent person" Second Annual International Mercantile Law Conference, in Bloemfontein 2014.
• Mabe, Z "Abuse of Sequestration Proceedings In South Africa Re-Visited" Presented a paper at the Annual IAITL Conference in Bangkok, Thailand 10 – 15 November 2013.

E-mail: [email protected]