At the tender age of 25, Phemelo Theophilus Magau has completed a daunting challenge: he finished his Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree in just two years.

He was awarded his LLD in mercantile law during an autumn graduation ceremony at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus on 25 May 2022.

Phemelo’s PhD thesis was “A comparative legal analysis of the promotion of financial education for low-income earners in South Africa”.

The thesis argues that the current regulatory framework for financial education is not robust enough to adequately promote financial education for low-income earners in South Africa, especially during a crisis such as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

In the study, Phemelo argues that financial education is vital for improving financial consumers’ knowledge of saving, budgeting, investing, doing financial planning, understanding financial risks and borrowing responsibly.

He draws on lessons from Botswana, Australia and the United Kingdom on the promotion of financial education,

‘‘Financial education is essential to assist financial consumers to make well-informed decisions, judgments and choices regarding the management of their finances for both short and long-term financial goals,” says Phemelo.

About Phemelo Magau

Born on 28 July 1996 in Kuruman, Northern Cape, Dr Phemelo Magau completed his LLB at the NWU in 2018 and obtained his LLM with Mercantile Law in 2019.

A former lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the NWU, he is currently a lecturer in the School of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. To date, he has four published journal articles and two upcoming book chapters to his name. He has presented various papers at local and international academic conferences.

Phemelo has co-supervised four master’s students and is a member of the organising committee for the annual International Corporate and Financial Markets Law Conference.

Phemelo Theophilus Magau