DEBORAH MUTEMWA-TUMBO: Turned her passion for law into a desire for transformation in South Africa
we put into growing our firm, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when so many businesses were closing down.” As a fierce feminist, Deborah knows women are incredible, powerful and full of solutions that could change the world – but in many ways, in our very patriarchal society, they are barred and held back from contributing all that they have where it could matter the most, she says. While our law gives women the full right to equality, and the right to live a life of dignity, this is not a reality for too many women in this country. She believes this must change if we are to achieve all that we can as a country and a continent. She quotes the words of Thomas Sankara to reiterate her point: The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph. Women hold up the other half of the sky. Her career approach thus far has been to “work to learn, not to earn”. Deborah, who also works with NGO’s Unleashing Leadership Potential to teach on principles of good governance and ethical leadership, and POWA in the fight for the advancement of women’s rights, says the biggest lesson she learned thus far is that it never gets easy.
me who supported our dream, including Justice Khampepe, Judge Phineas Mojapelo, Adv Mojanku Gumbi, Charles Hinga Mwaura (who was our very first retainer client), and Prof Maurice Radebe to name a few. These and other incredible legal and business professionals believed in us, giving us the courage to believe in ourselves.” Although Deborah does not see herself as successful yet, she has notable achievements behind her name. She led the legal team that eventually saw the landmark judgment in Corruption Watch and Another v Arms Procurement Commission and Others finally handed down in the Pretoria High Court – a case that was years in the making, and ultimately clarified that the findings of commissions of inquiry are reviewable by a court of law. She also led the drafting of the Common African Position on Asset Recovery, which was endorsed as AU policy by the AU heads of state in February 2020. “I was 28 and pregnant at the time, which was a small personal victory,” she reminisces. “Being featured in the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list earlier this year was an incredible moment of personal victory and a stamp of approval on all the hard work
A passion for the law and a desire to boost transformation for South Africans who don’t have ready access to quality legal services drove Deborah Mutemwa-Tumbo to open her own law practice at a tender age of 26 years. With her business partner, Dr Tshepiso Scott, she co-established Tumbo Scott Incorporated, a fully black-and female-owned corporate commercial law firm. To build a law firm from the ground up was no joke, but her deep commitment to transformation drove her ambition. After making her mark at top- legal firms like Webber Wentzel, where she was the chairperson of the leadership network corporate social investment committee, and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, where she worked in public law and litigation, she joined the Constitutional Court, where she served as a clerk under Justice Sisi Khampepe. “Working in those environments made me acutely aware of how powerful and beneficial the law was – and that made me all the more aware of how much the majority of people in this country do not have access to quality legal services. The dream of changing that is what kept Tumbo Scott going thus far,” says Deborah. “I was also very fortunate to have some amazing mentors behind
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