Building on a legacy: 2026 Young South Africans list honours next generation of legal changemakers

Being recognised among the 2026 Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans at a time when “so much is happening in South Africa” and at a particularly significant moment in the nation’s history, as it marks the 5oth anniversary of the Soweto Uprising and the 30th anniversary of the Constitution, is “a profound honour and privilege” and “both deeply humbling and encouraging,” says Lawrence Dlamini.

A 28-year-old candidate legal practitioner at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Dlamini is already contributing to some of South Africa's most significant public interest litigation, taking on cases that challenge inequality and expand access to justice. The law, he believes. Is not simply a profession, but a tool for rebuilding the systems that shape people's lives.

One of 16 honourees in the Justice, Law & Human Rights category this year, Dlamini works across human rights, land and education rights, gender-based violence and digital justice, and believes lasting change requires more than individual legal victories. Strong institutions and systems matter too.

Surveying the lawyers and legal thinkers recognised this year, in the Justice, Law & Human Rights category and others, illustrates the breadth of a new generation who are asking who the law serves, whose voices are heard, and what sort of legal system is being built for the coming chapters in the region’s exciting future.

Fellow honouree Michelle Sithole left corporate practice for public interest environmental law and is now an attorney and climate justice activist at the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER). She leads the landmark #CancelCoal litigation, challenging plans for new coal-fired power and advancing arguments around constitutional rights, children, and intergenerational climate justice.

Sithole is one of two CER attorneys among this year’s 200. Colleague Ntombi Maphosa, recognised in the Climate, Environment & Energy category, played a leading role in the Deadly Air litigation, where the Supreme Court of Appeal affirmed the state’s immediate constitutional obligation to protect people from harmful air pollution. She is also leading litigation challenging Eskom exemptions from pollution requirements at eight coal-fired power stations. CER celebrated Sithole and Maphosa, saying the duo use law to “defend communities, challenge powerful polluters, and advance the right to a healthy environment”.

For Sbonelo Thandolwenkosi Nkomo, such communities are particularly close to home. His mother was a farm worker, and Nkomo grew up in a remote KwaZulu-Natal rural community to became the first person from there to attend high school and university. Now an associate at Richard Spoor Incorporated Attorneys, Nkomo represents the rural communities whose voices have too often been excluded from decisions affecting their land, livelihoods, and futures.

He has worked on landmark cases, including the ongoing Xolobeni and Wild Coast N2 litigation on behalf of the Amadiba communities. Reflecting on the glittering 200 Young South Africans ceremony on 6 August, Nkomo noted: “It doesn’t have to be linear. Never let opportunity come at the cost of your dignity.”

Listening to people most affected by inequality is also fundamental to another honouree, Nokwanda Sihlali, and her work. A researcher at the University of Cape Town (UCT)’s Land and Accountability Research Centre, Sihlali works across customary law, informal land rights and rural governance. A community advocate and published poet as well as a legal researcher, she believes meaningful social change begins by listening to people’s lived experiences.

Other lawyer and legal thinkers among this year’s 200 Young South Africans, focus on the institutions and culture of the legal system itself. Former Constitutional Court law clerk Dimakatso Nchodu is a research and advocacy officer at UCT’s Democratic Governance and Rights Unit, where her work with Judges Matter examines judicial appointments and accountability. She also leads a project developing a unified approach to addressing sexual harassment across South Africa’s legal ecosystem.

Lehlohonolo S January sees the justice system from inside its highest courts. Now a law researcher at the Supreme Court of Appeal, he previously clerked for Constitutional Court Justice Zukisa Tshiqi, and completed a fellowship at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha. An International Human Rights Law LLM graduate from Notre Dame, January carries a straightforward conviction into those rarefied spaces: “You occupy spaces you belong in.”

Creating pathways for others to occupy such spaces is central to Busisiwe Kamolane-Kgadima’s work. The Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, she combines public interest litigation with institution-building. Kamolane-Kgadima helped develop the Global South’s first anti-SLAPP model law and created a public interest law moot court competition supporting students, particularly from historically Black universities, with advocacy training and mentorship.

Now 32 years old, in 2024, she became the first and youngest Black woman to serve as acting director of CALS in its more than 45-year history. “I feel like everything has led to this,” she said of her 200 Young South Africans recognition. “All the many many years of hard work, dedication and diligence. Every milestone I’ve achieved, all the tough times I had to overcome. I’m so proud of myself!”

Her parents, anti-apartheid activists who experienced raids, arrests and exile, remain her greatest inspiration.

That connection between one generation’s struggles and another’s opportunities also runs through advocate Seadimo Tlale’s story, a Johannesburg advocate who was recognised in this year’s Education, Training & Skills Development category.

Tlale’s mother taught her daughters that neither gender nor circumstance should constrain their ambitions. Seadimo and her sister became the first Black girls to represent South Africa internationally in chess. Today, Tlale practises at the Johannesburg Bar and, within her first 16 months as an advocate, had already been briefed in five Constitutional Court matters. She also founded the Advocates for Transformation Academic Support Programme and co-founded Chess Kidding, a youth development initiative that uses chess to develop critical thinking and expand educational opportunities for children.

Across courtrooms, universities, judicial chambers. and rural communities, these nine 2026 Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans honourees offer different visions of meaningful work in law. Yet their stories repeatedly return to ambitions and inspirations that go beyond individual success: defending communities, strengthening institutions, and widening the path for those coming behind them.

This is the first of a two-part series Africa Legal is running this month, celebrating and spotlighting lawyers and legal thinkers included among this year’s 200 Young South Africans. Part two, “Beyond the law”, will focus on the nine remaining honourees from this year’s Justice, Law, and Human Rights category.