Boyane John Gosebo Tshehla
Senior Lecturer | Legal Researcher | Novelist
📧 boyane.tshehla@nwu.ac.za | 🌐 www.JohnGosebo.com

​

​

I was born and raised in the rural village of Leolo in Ga-Sekhukhune, Limpopo. There, under a tree, I received my first lessons in reading and writing before classrooms became available. My early schooling, both formal and informal, shaped my understanding of life and responsibility within a community.

In 1990, I left Leolo to pursue tertiary education at the University of the North (now the University of Limpopo), where I obtained my B.Proc degree. I later completed articles of clerkship and was admitted as an attorney in 1995. In what surprised many people (including my parents) ,I left practice to pursue an LLM in Criminal Justice at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 2001.

I have since worked in academia and policy research, teaching law at various institutions. My teaching spans diverse subjects — Criminal Law, Procedure, ADR, Evidence, Jurisprudence, Law of Persons, Damages, and Environmental Law — each enriching my legal perspective and research interests.

Beyond academia, I write fiction under the name John Gosebo (my middle names), blending legal insight with narrative craft to explore the stories the courtroom and the lecture hall can’t always tell.

 

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• LLM (Criminal Justice) – University of Cape Town, 2001

• B.Proc – University of the North (now Limpopo), 1993

• Certificate in Facilitation

• Attorney of the High Court of South Africa 

 

CURRENT POSITION

Senior Lecturer, North-West University (from August 2024)

• Teaching and research

• Postgraduate supervision and academic development contributions

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Distinguishing between Dolus Directus and Dolus Eventualis, SAJ Criminal Justice

• Arrest without a Warrant, SAJ on Human Rights

• The Conspicuousness of a Warrant of Arrest, South African Law Journal

• Right to Bail? Odds Stacked Against the Accused Person, SAJ on Human Rights (2019)

• Double Jeopardy in South African Law, in A Reasonable Man (Juta, 2019)

• The Traditional Health Practitioners Act: Strengths & Weaknesses, Indilinga (2015)

• Engagement of Prosecutors Not in the Employ of the NPA, Journal of Juridical Science (2016)

• Eviction in the Rental Housing Sector, Speculum Juris (2016)

📚 Over 20 peer-reviewed publications and monographs available on request

 

CAREER HISTORY

• Wits University Law School – Senior Lecturer (2016–2024)

• North-West University – Senior Lecturer (2012–2016)

• Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

  • Head: Crime & Justice Programme (2005–2008)

  • Senior Researcher (2003–2005)

• University of Cape Town – Researcher & Lecturer & Course Convenor (2000–2003)

• Isaiah Ministries – Legal Advisor & Community Legal Worker (1996–1999)

RESEARCH & ACADEMIC CONTRIBUTIONS

• Presented papers in South Africa, Scandinavia, and Mozambique

• SSRC & NRF-funded research on urban youth and non-state justice

• Media contributor on justice, policing, and crime (BBC, SABC, ETV,  CapeTalk, and others)

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Criminal justice reform

• Procedural law and human rights

• Traditional and non-state justice systems

• Regulation of traditional health practice

• Environmental law (focus on Environmental Criminal Law & Regulatory Frameworks)

 

SELECT MONOGRAPHS & POLICY WORK

• Child Justice in South Africa (ISS Monograph, with Skelton, 2008)

• Traditional Justice in Practice: A Limpopo Case Study (ISS Monograph, 2004)

• Delivering Justice: A Broad Look at the State System, Service Delivery Review (2002)