4 May Seminar JHB: Arbitration in Practice - Bridging Domestic and International Practice in Southern Africa

Adv Vasileva serves as the Secretary-General of AFSA. She brings over 28 years of international legal experience, beginning with advisory work on privatisation and economic reform initiatives across East Europe. For the past 15 years, she has been based in Africa, with a professional footprint in Egypt, Seychelles, and South Africa. Her broader legal advisory work has included collaboration with regulatory authorities, lawmakers, and international organisations on legislative reform, institutional developments, and regional legal harmonisation. She brings extensive expertise in international investment and commercial arbitration, as well as in commercial law, with a focus on cross-border transactions, trade finance, and international contract law. In addition to her subject-matter expertise, she has played a leading role in advancing arbitration practice and supporting the institutional development of arbitration across the continent, through her active involvement in rule reform and capacity-building initiatives. Svetlana is widely recognised for her ability to navigate and bridge diverse legal traditions—common law, civil law, and mixed systems—supporting the development of cohesive and effective dispute resolution frameworks in Africa.

With two Master of Laws degrees—one in International Economic Law from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and another in European Law from Burgas Free University (Bulgaria). Admitted as an advocate in Bulgaria/EU, she is also a certified mediator accredited in both the EU and South Africa and Quality Management System (ISO 9001) leading auditor. Her fluency in English, Russian, and Bulgarian supports her work across jurisdictions and international forums.

Adv. Vasileva regularly contributes to thought leadership in international arbitration, including recent publications such as the AfAA Arbitration Compass and commentary on South Africa’s evolving role in regional dispute resolution. Her current focus includes conflict-of-laws in international commercial arbitration, institutional cooperation, and ensuring that African voices are fully integrated into global dispute resolution dialogue.

She is actively involved in numerous professional organisations, including the International Bar Association (Arbitration Committee), the International Law Association (Committee on Conflict of Laws), the American Bar Association (International Section), and the New York State Bar Association (Africa Arbitration and ADR Committee). She also serves as the Africa Regional Representative for the Asia‑Pacific Forum for International Arbitration, is a member of the Africa Committee of the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations, and is affiliated with ArbitralWomen.

Judge Margie Victor is a distinguished legal practitioner and jurist with a career spanning over four decades, marked by a strong commitment to justice, transformation, and alternative dispute resolution.

Her professional journey began as a qualified social worker, before she transitioned into law, first as an attorney and then as an advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. Over 25 years of advocacy, her practice encompassed environmental law, commercial litigation, and family law.

Judge Victor was the first woman elected to the Johannesburg Bar Council, where she championed gender and racial transformation in the legal profession. In 2008, she was appointed as a Judge of the Gauteng Local Division of the High Court of South Africa (Johannesburg). Her judicial career included serving on the Competition Appeal Court, where she acted as Judge President, and as an Acting Justice of both the Supreme Court of Appeal (2016) and the Constitutional Court (2019-2021). She was instrumental in the landmark Sylvia Mahlangu v Minister of Labour judgment, which extended workplace injury insurance to domestic workers, integrating constitutional jurisprudence with intersectional considerations of race, gender, and social origin.

Through formal mentorship programmes and training workshops, she has mentored countless aspiring judges, legal practitioners, and students locally and internationally. Judge Victor has also served on the Board of the Institute of African Women Lawyers, promoting gender equality across the continent.

After retiring from the judiciary, she continued her dedication to dispute resolution as the Ombud for the Long- and Short-Term Insurance industry. Her enduring passion for Alternative Dispute Resolution makes her an invaluable presenter in the AFSA ADR Programme, where she brings her wealth of experience in mediation, arbitration, and judicial excellence.

Advocate Rampete is a seasoned legal practitioner and gender transformation strategist with over two decades of experience spanning litigation, policy development, and constitutional advocacy. Her career, rooted in a commitment to justice and equity, has traversed leading institutions including the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Webber Wentzel Attorneys, and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

From 2003 to 2023, Ntibidi served in various capacities ,sixteen of those years in public service where she held middle to senior management roles as an attorney and legal advisor. Her portfolio encompassed legislative drafting and analysis, administration of justice initiatives, and the implementation of key statutory frameworks such as the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA), the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).

Her recent practice as an Advocate, since February 2024, has seen her actively engaged in motion court proceedings across a broad spectrum of legal domains, including labour law, land restitution, personal injury litigation, constitutional challenges, public administration reviews, commercial disputes, and urgent applications. She is known for her precision in drafting pleadings and legal opinions that integrate statutory compliance with strategic clarity.

Ntibidi holds an LLM in International Law from Georgetown University, alongside an LLB, B Proc, and Higher Diploma in Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of the North. Her academic foundation is further enriched by a Certificate in Competition Law from the Mandela Institute and Social Justice and Law Trainers’ Course from University of Stellenbosch.

Her professional journey includes pivotal roles such as Principal State Law Advisor in the Social Justice, Gender, and Policy Units of the Department of Justice, Assistant State Attorney in Pretoria, and Judicial Clerk to Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo. She has also contributed to feminist legal research and advocacy through CALS and Georgetown’s Women’s Rights Advocacy Program.

She is a dual member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates (JSA) and the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (PABASA), a Commissioner of the Small Claims Court, and a certified Mediator with the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA). Her work continues to champion constitutional alignment, gender equity, and systemic reform within South Africa’s legal landscape.

“Abena Osei is a Senior Associate at Werksmans Attorneys in the Dispute Resolution practice, specialising in international arbitration, investment treaty arbitration and cross-border disputes. She represents multinational corporations and investors in complex, high-value disputes across multiple jurisdictions.

Her experience includes acting in proceedings before the Permanent Court of Arbitration and she also regularly advises on commercial litigation in the High Court including alternative dispute resolution.

She holds an LLB (with distinction) from the University of Pretoria and is an active member of Young AFSA, contributing to the development of the next generation of arbitration practitioners.”

Bobedi Seleke is Managing Counsel at the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA), with over a decade of experience in commercial, regulatory, and competition law. She previously worked at the Competition Tribunal of South Africa and brings deep insight into complex legal and regulatory frameworks. Prior to this, she was a Director at Fluxmans Attorneys, where she specialised in mergers, regulatory compliance, and commercial litigation across sectors including telecommunications, energy, and finance. Bobedi holds an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand and an LLM in Mercantile Law from the University of Pretoria. She is passionate about advancing efficient dispute resolution.

Sir Clive Freedman practises a broad range of commercial law at all levels of higher courts up to the Supreme Court.  He was in many high-profile trials and was The Times’ Lawyer of the Week.  He appeared in over 50 cases in the Court of Appeal.  A large part of his work arose out of joint venture and commercial fraud in the CIS states following the break-up of the Soviet Union. He was called to the Bar in the BVI. Highly rated in the professional directories for commercial dispute resolution, commercial fraud, arbitration, banking and professional negligence.

As an advocate, he appeared as counsel in LCIA, LME, ICC and Stockholm Chamber of Commerce arbitrations and ad hoc arbitrations. Sir Clive also appeared in many court challenges to enforcement of arbitral awards. He has written about arbitration appeals in the first and second editions of Burton on Civil Appeals.  He is a visiting professor teaching Private International Law.  He is also an accredited mediator.

While a Judge of the King’s Bench Division between 2018 and 2025 (and as a deputy High Court Judge in the Chancery Division for 15 years before this), he tried numerous trials, most of which were either about commercial law or business disputes.  They included banking and finance, employment, franchising, civil fraud, company and insolvency, insurance, injunctions (especially in private international law disputes) and challenges of arbitral awards. A list of representative cases tried by him as a Judge is at the end of his website entry.