Page 106 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

LAW

Law of the sea NESP scholar

Yonela Ndila is a master’s student focusing on ocean governance and the law of the sea in the
Faculty of Law. She is on the Nurturing Emerging Scholars Programme (NESP).

“I always wanted to go to university, I knew that was the path I had “My career goal is to contribute to academia through research and
to take after matriculating,” says Ndila, who grew up in Khayelitsha. practical experience,” says Ndila, who is currently completing her
“So many young people in the township drop out of school and practical vocational training, which she started at Knowles Husain
are unemployed, but I wanted something better and fortunately Lindsay Attorneys Inc and is continuing with Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
my parents, both nurses, encouraged and sacrificed for my siblings Inc. Ndila will be admitted as an attorney of the High Court of
and me to pursue our education.” South Africa and notary in November.

After her BCom Law and LLB at the University of the Western “For my master’s I wanted to pursue an area of law which, in my
Cape, Ndila set her sights on doing her master’s but says “had it opinion, needs developing, as most people within the fraternity are
not been for NESP I would not be doing my LLM (well not at this not familiar with it. I needed something that would set me apart,
stage) as doing my undergraduate degrees placed a considerable and the Law of the Sea is this area. I started in 2021, supervised by
financial burden on me. Professor Patrick Vrancken and Dr Denning Metuge.” Dr Metuge is
a postdoctoral fellow in the SARChI Chair
of the Law of the Sea and Development in
Africa, which is held by Professor Vrancken.

“I recently completed my first paper as an
assignment for my coursework and it has
been a very difficult undertaking as I have
never been exposed to the Law of the
Sea before. The task was to analyse the
tribunal’s decisions in the following case:
Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration
(Mauritius v United Kingdom, PCA case
2011-3, award of 18 March 2015.”

Ndila explains: “The dispute in the
case concerned the United Kingdom
establishing a 200 nautical mile Marine
Protected Area (MPA) in and around
the waters surrounding the Chagos
Archipelago in April 2010 (the archipelago
is governed by the United Kingdom as
the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
This meant that commercial fishing was
prohibited, and strict limits were placed
on fishing for personal consumption; other
activities in the MPA were also prohibited.

“This dispute raised issues of sovereignty
over the Chagos Archipelago. Mauritius
claimed the United Kingdom was not
entitled to declare the MPA because it was
Yonela Ndila

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