Rehana Cassim is a Professor in the Department of Mercantile Law at the Unisa of South Africa. She holds a BA degree (with distinction), an LLB degree (with distinction), a postgraduate LLM in Company Law (with distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and an LLD from the University of South Africa, Pretoria. Rehana was the recipient of the Society of Advocates Prize for the most distinguished LLB graduate at the University of the Witwatersrand; the recipient of the Faculty of Arts Gold Medal awarded to the most distinguished Bachelor of Arts graduate at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the recipient of the James Grieves Prize awarded to the best Philosophy student at the University of the Witwatersrand.
She worked as a research assistant for a year at the Constitutional Court of South Africa where she clerked for the Honourable Justice Albie Sachs and for the Honourable Justice Zak Yacoob. She is an admitted attorney and notary public and has practised as such at Bowmans, specialising in Company Law. She is a member of the Gauteng Legal Practice Council and a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.
Rehana joined the Mercantile Law Department of Unisa on a full-time basis in 2014, where she lectures Company Law to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her research interests are company law and corporate governance, with a specific focus on the removal of directors and delinquent directors. She supervises LLM and LLD students in Company Law and has presented papers at national and international conferences.
She has contributed to several scholarly books on Company Law and is the sole author of the book "Removal of Directors and Delinquency Orders under the South African Companies Act" published by Juta in 2020. She has published articles in national and international journals. Her work has been cited in some High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal judgments. Rehana is the recipient of the 2018 Unisa Women in Research Emerging Researcher Award for Excellence in Research, and the 2020 Unisa Women in Research Leadership Award for demonstrating outstanding leadership in research. In 2023 the National Research Foundation (NRF) awarded her an NRF C2 rating. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa (CILSA).
