The Vera Chirwa Prize winner for 2024 was announced on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2024, at the Aula, University of Pretoria, on the occasion of the 25th graduation ceremony of the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (HRDA), of the Centre for Human Rights at the Law Faculty of the University of Pretoria. Ms Lindiwe Khumalo is an HRDA alumna (Class of 2010, Eswatini).
The Vera Chirwa Prize was instituted for a graduate of the LLM/MPhil in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa who best embodies the principles of the programme in their subsequent career by “making a difference” to the protection of human rights or the strengthening of democratisation in Africa. It was instituted on the occasion of the Centre for Human Rights being awarded the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education.
Who is Vera Chirwa?
Vera Mlangazua Chirwa is a Malawian-born lawyer and human and civil rights activist. The Vera Chirwa Award was instituted in recognition of her personal sacrifice and contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights in Africa. She fought for multiparty democratic rule in Malawi and was charged with treason, tried and sentenced to death by the authoritarian regime of Hastings Kamuzu Banda. She spent 12 years on death row with her husband Orton Chirwa, a lawyer and once Malawian Minister of Justice and Attorney General. The Chirwas’ execution date was set for 9 June 1983, but international pressure saved their lives. While in detention, they were tortured, often kept in leg irons, received inadequate food and were denied proper medical attention which led to the death of Vera Chirwa’s husband Orton. Vera Chirwa was eventually released in 1993 and a new constitution was adopted, which allowed for multiparty democracy. Vera Chirwa established herself as a leading voice for human rights in Malawi and started an NGO. She became a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 1999 and served as the Commission’s Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa. She retired from the Commission in 2005 but remains a human rights champion in her home country, across the continent and the globe.
2024 Vera Chirwa Awardee
This year, the Vera Chirwa Award goes to Ms Lindiwe Khumalo in recognition of her professional contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights in Africa through institutional and policy initiatives within the African Union and in South Africa.
Lindiwe’s career
Ms Lindiwe Khumalo has served as the Chairperson of Public Commissions of Enquiry for the Parliament of the Kingdom of Swaziland from 2000 to 2006; as Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Government of Swaziland from 1996 to 2009; as Managing Director of LKM Attorneys from 1996 to 2009; just before she joined the HRDA programme in 2010. Thereafter, she served as Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission from 2015 to 2016, and currently is the Clerk of the Pan-African Parliament at the African Union.
In these various roles, Ms Khumalo has made significant contributions to the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa, only a few of which are mentioned here. She has facilitated access to justice and the enjoyment of human rights. Ms Khumalo made history in 2023 as the first female Clerk of the Pan-African Parliament since its inception in 2004. She is also an admitted attorney of the High Courts of South Africa, Eswatini, and Lesotho, boasting 20 years of extensive litigation experience in private legal practice
Role in South Africa
Special note is made of her contributions during her appointment as the Provincial Manager at the South African Human Rights Commission, where she led human rights protection and promotion programmes in South Africa, providing guidance and directing investigations, mediation, negotiations and litigation of human rights complaints; and championed citizen awareness of the Bill of Rights. As the Chief Operations Officer at the same organisation, she has led core operations of South Africa’s national human rights institution, managed the operations and programmatic performance of nine provincial offices across the Republic, led role clarification, process improvement and quality assurance of the work of the Secretariat.
Role in Africa
From 2017 to 2020, she was appointed as the Advisor to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, where she has led institutional and policy coherence initiatives between the African Union Commission and all Organs and Specialized Agencies of the Union. She has also led the African Governance Architecture (AGA) at the technical level which brings together 11 Organs of the African Union and eight Regional Economic Communities. In this role she drove strategic reflections, institutional collaboration and coherence initiatives of Organs of the African Union as part of the human rights, governance and rule of law mandate. She is currently the Clerk of the Pan African Parliament, in which role she provides technical support to mandate-holders and special mechanisms, manages financial and human resources and programme implementation.
For more information, please contact:

Tel +27 (0) 12 420 6703
Fax +27 (0)86 580 5743
michelle.maziwisa@up.ac.za

Tel: +27 (0)12 420 4684
Fax: +27 0) 86 580 5743
davina.murden@up.ac.za