Marietjie Botes

Marietjie has been practising as an attorney since 2001 and holds the degrees of BProc, LLB, LLM with specialisation in Intellectual Property Law and an LLD with specialisation in Biotechnology Law. During her years as partner at Dyason Inc in Pretoria she drafted, reviewed and advised on Health-tech, Fin-tech and Bio-tech Contracts, advised on all legal aspects involving Biotechnology, litigated and gave legal advice in the fields of Health Care, Life Sciences and Insurance.

In 2019 Marietjie has joined the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal as a postdoctoral researcher in the Health Law and Bioethics research group lead by Prof Thaldar where she specifically focusses on genetic research regulation, privacy issues relating to health information, data sharing and commercialisation, gene editing, stem cell therapy ethics and research regulations. Marietjie also teaches Medical Law, Human Rights and Ethical Theories to medical students at the School of Health Sciences, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019 Marietjie also became intensively involved in pandemic preparedness and management research and was appointment by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) to be part of the Expert Groups leading the development of the COVID-19 County Report on the implementation of measures to combat COVID-19 in South Africa. She is specifically authoring and leading the Human Rights and Legal approach to Government leadership, governance, institutional arrangements and state capacity in responding to COVID-19.

In February 2020 Marietjie was also invited by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) to serve on an Academy consensus study panel chaired by Professor Michael Pepper, looking into the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues related to Gene Therapy: A South African perspective. As part of this illustrious panel Marietjie focusses specifically on gene therapy, gene editing and related technologies, intergenerational justice and issues relating to the commercialisation of and Intellectual Property rights in cell and gene therapies.