Caroline Ncube
Caroline Bongiwe Ncube is a Zimbabwean scholar who works as a professor of commercial law at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She holds the South African Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Development. Her work focuses on intellectual property law and how it affects society and development in Africa.
Ncube earned an LLB from the University of Zimbabwe in 1995, then an LLM from the University of Cambridge in 2000. After a short time in private practice, she taught at the University of Limpopo and the University of Zimbabwe. She joined UCT in 2005 as a lecturer in Commercial Law while working on her PhD in IP law, which she completed in 2011.
At UCT, she was head of the commercial law department from 2014 to 2016 and became a full professor in 2016. She holds the South African Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Development, funded by the Department of Science and Technology and administered by the National Research Foundation. She has also served as deputy dean for postgraduate studies (2017, 2019) and again led the department in 2022. She is connected with UCT's IP unit.
Her research looks at how IP law affects innovation, access to information, and the protection of indigenous knowledge in Africa. She wrote a 2015 book on IP policy and development in Africa, exploring how regional cooperation shapes IP law.
Ncube is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She has advised groups such as the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, the African Union, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. She is involved with professional and academic IP networks and journals.
She moved to South Africa in August 2003 and has permanent resident status. She is married and has two sons.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:57 (CET).