Mbali Baduza

Mbali Baduza is the Deputy-Secretary of the Climate Justice Coalition of South Africa, and the CEO of the Constitution Hill Trust.

Previously at SECTION27, a public interest law organisation, Mbali was an activist lawyer who sought to help achieve substantive equality and social justice in South Africa. She coordinated the Environmental and Climate Justice Project at the non-profit organisation, which explores and advances law and policy that centres climate action in human rights discourse, strengthens health and education systems, and holds the state accountable to its existing domestic and international obligations.

Mbali was elected as the Deputy-Secretary of the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) in 2021. The CJC comprises of trade unions, grassroots, community-based and non-profit organisations. The CJC works to advance a transformative agenda in tackling the climate crisis in a manner that also works to tackle inequality, poverty and unemployment that pervades South Africa. One of the CJC's campaign calls for a #GreenNewEskom, where a key demand is a rapid and just transition to a more socially owned renewable energy powered economy, with no worker and community left behind in the transition.

Mbali currently holds a BA in Law and Political Science and International Relations; Honours in Political Science and International Relations; and LLB from Rhodes University. She also holds an LLM in Human Rights from the University of Edinburgh.