Adv. Mohau Maapesa

Adv. Mohau Maapesa serves as Constitutional Board Deputy Chairperson of the Centre for Development in Social Justice (CDSJ) and brings over fifteen years of experience in legal practice, constitutional analysis, labour rights advocacy, gender justice programming, and institutional governance in Lesotho and across the Southern African region.

Over the course of her career, she has held senior programme and legal leadership roles at Solidarity Center, Workers Rights Watch, and Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, where she has led and supported high-level work on labour rights, gender-based violence and harassment, women's legal empowerment, legal literacy, donor compliance, policy advocacy, institutional strengthening, and multi-stakeholder coordination.

Her professional record reflects a rare combination of legal scholarship, programme stewardship, and movement-grounded leadership, strengthened further by her contributions to research and publications on constitutional reform, discriminatory labour practices, and gender equality. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Law, with research focused on the role of labour law in empowering informal sector workers and strengthening legal protection within the informal economy.

She is professionally affiliated with the Lesotho Law Society and the ILAW Network. At CDSJ, she brings a distinguished constitutional and governance lens to board leadership, helping to safeguard the institution's legal integrity, strengthen its oversight culture, and deepen its credibility as a principled, rights-based organisation committed to accountable leadership, democratic values, and transformative social justice.