The new director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits University will be Dr Tshepo Madlingozi, effective from June this year.

"We are thrilled to have such a prominent academic, critical thinker and activist joining CALS in this leadership role and look forward to working with him," said the centre, the university and its School of Law in a joint statement.

Madlingozi holds a PhD from the University of London, as well as masters degrees in law and sociology from the University of Pretoria, where he has been based for more than 16 years.

"I feel very honoured to lead this wonderful organisation. I look forward to working with all of you to advance the cause of social justice, human rights and democracy," he commented on his Twitter account.

Over the past 13 years, Madlingozi served as the national advocacy co-ordinator and a board member of the Khulumani Support Group, which represents more than 85,000 victims of apartheid-era human rights violations.

He has also served on the boards of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Free State; the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa; the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum; the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) and amandla.mobi.

Wits said Madlingozi had also consulted for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Pan-African Parliament, and was appointed to the advisory committee of the SA Law Reform Commission's Project 25 on statutory law revision.

"Dr Madlingozi is therefore very well placed to lead an organisation like CALS, which connects academia and social justice, and has much to contribute to the School of Law and the Wits University community more broadly. We heartily welcome his appointment and look forward to learning from his many areas of expertise."