Department/Unit: Public, Constitutional and International Law
Qualifications: Doctor of Laws, Master of Laws, Bachelor of Laws
PhD Institution: North-West University
PhD dissertation title: Enhancing democratic accountability through constitutionalism in South Africa
Current research interests and projects: Constitutional hermeneutics, human rights theory, energy law
Selected publication 1: Dube, F “The rule of law in a state of disaster: evaluating standards for the promulgation, administration and enforcement of emergency regulations in South Africa” 2022 Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 1-17
Selected publication 2: Dube, F “Separation of powers and the institutional supremacy of the Constitutional Court over Parliament and the executive” 2020 36(2) South African Journal on Human Rights 293-318
Selected publication 3: Dube, F “Testing the right to vote in free and fair local government elections in South Africa: challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic” 2022 Southern African Public Law 1-22
Selected publication 4: Dube, F “The ethos of tolerance of diversity in post-apartheid jurisprudence” 2022 43(1) Obiter 124-141
Selected publication 5: Dube, F “Neither adopted nor borrowed: A critique of the conception of the South African Bill of Rights” 2020 (23) Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 1-26
Selected publication 6: Dube, F “The South African Constitution as an instrument of doing what is just, right and fair” 2020 54(1) In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 1-6
Selected publication 7: Dube, F & Ncube, P “Common law and statutory rights of residential tenants during the lockdown in South Africa 2021 (84) Tydskrif vir Hedendaagse Romeins 165-179
Selected publication 8: Dube, F & Moyo, CG “The right to electricity in South Africa” 2022 (24) Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 1-21
Selected publication 9: Dube, F & du Plessis, AA “Unlawful occupiers, eviction and the National State of Disaster: Considering South Africa’s Emergency Legislation and Jurisprudence COVID-19” 2021 65(2) Journal of African Law 333-346
Selected publication 10: Wright, J; Dube, F & du Plessis, AA “Judicial Enforcement of Mandatory Provincial Interventions in Municipalities in South Africa” 2022 55(1) World Comparative Law 105-125.
Capstone assignment title: Supervising (law) doctoral students during a global emergency: lessons from COVID-19
Capstone assignment abstract: The rising demand for more doctorates in Africa means that there is a directly proportional increase in the demand for suitably qualified and experienced promoters to supervise candidates during the course of their doctoral research (Mouton & Frick, 2019). Although there is considerable scholarship on doctoral supervision (Mouton & Frick, 2019a), there is need to understand doctoral supervision in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which doctoral students are facing the biggest challenges in their academic lives. South Africa does not have a history of how to deal with doctoral supervision in the middle of pandemic, given that the first doctorate was awarded in 1921 after the Spanish Flue (Botha, 2019). The coming of the Covid-19 pandemic presents several threats to doctoral students. The first threat is the emotional stress which emerges because of the anxiety and uncertainty posed by the pandemic. The pandemic not only threatens the well-being of students but also poses threats to other important parts of doctoral research, such as grants and other funding. Due to the pandemic, sponsors, government agencies and other funders have had to tighten their belts, particularly at a time when the exigency of the pandemic has led to massive job losses, a knock on the fiscal revenue base and a budget cut for higher education in South Africa (Kassen, 2020). The second threat to doctoral students is on the research methodology front. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdown imposed to curb its spread have confined doctoral students and made it impossible for them to go out into the field to collect data. This threat not only frustrates students but also makes it impossible for the doctoral students to complete their work on time, with severe funding implications. This contribution is an analysis of the challenges facing (law) doctoral students during the pandemic in South Africa. It also highlights the benefits of the pandemic to some students and examines how supervisors can adapt their approach to supervision to optimise the work of the students who are already emasculated by the pandemic.
