At Malachite Advisory we use critical legal thinking and the power of story to develop innovative solutions to complex problems.
Our skills are diverse. We offer a legal team with real world business experience, specialising in labour law, education law, constitutional and public law, tax law, commercial structuring and public interest litigation; access to a national accounting firm with a global presence, and a multidisciplinary panel of experts in leadership, HR, systems, corporate finance and leadership.  
Our team of professionals have built a reputation as alternative thinkers, adding significant value in numerous fields; in education, Fortune 500 global companies, small business, ‘big four’ accounting firms, management consulting, academia and journalism, both locally and internationally.
Malachite Advisory isn’t a law firm, eschewing the strict regulations, adversarial methods and billable hours associated with the legal profession. Our approach is values-driven, unconventional and nimble. We operate outside the four walls of a law firm, literally and figuratively, which is apparent in how and where we work. Our legal professionals collaborate with experts from diverse backgrounds in order to provide strategic support to organisations of all types and sizes. We provide solutions and support to launch ideas that haven’t been tried before. Whether tasked with launching ground-breaking initiatives or devising novel solutions to age-old problems, we embrace the freedom to think creatively and execute with agility. However, should a project demand more conventional legal services such as litigation or conveyancing, we have seamlessly integrated the law firm of Van Wyk and Associates into our operations to provide the requisite support.
Legal Consulting for Social Justice
We’re very proud of our Social Justice Division, encompassing Early Childhood Development, Voices of the Voiceless, and Women in Small Business. This division guides people who struggle to access strategic advice and legal support due to prevailing power paradigms. We also specialise in strategic legal consulting for the non-profit sector, providing practical legal support to our social justice warriors.
Early Childhood Development
Our Early Childhood Development Division draws on a deep understanding of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector based on our director’s ownership of ECD centres serving 150 families for seventeen years, and our expertise in ECD and Education Law. We are deeply committed to early childhood development as the key to unlock education attainment, which is our most powerful tool to close the inequality gap and to break the cycle of poverty in South Africa. 
Voices of the Voiceless
Our directors, in their capacity as attorneys with the pro bono department of Van Wyk and Associates, take on public interest litigation which impacts the South African ECD sector. Notably, Van Wyk and Associates successfully intervened as amicus curiae in the case against the Ministers of Social Development, Education and Finance to compel them to open up nursery schools (ECD centres), which had been kept shut unlawfully for months during the COVID-19 lockdown. Following on from this court victory, further litigation was launched to compel the Minister of Social Development and the MECs of Social Development to pay nutrition subsidies which had been withheld from malnourished young children at the centres. This case has been through the Supreme Court of Appeal and is now pending before the Constitutional Court. The pro bono arm of Van Wyk and Associates has been working on this litigation without funding for three years, using personal resources and thousands of hours of personal time. 


In our journey to be the voice for the impoverished, forgotten ECD sector we have made lifelong friends with amazing women (and some men) across South Africa, from the foothills of rural KZN to the informal settlements of Soshanguve in Gauteng to the ECD centres serving the poorest of poor in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape. We have joined forces with activists and ordinary citizens, single mothers operating the centres left to them by their mothers, women who provide havens for special needs children, activists who give their all to uplifting the ECD sector, in Parliament, on the streets, in informal settlements and universities, united with a common purpose to serve the needs of young children. 


Over and above pro bono litigation, we serve impoverished ECD centres with legal issues that stand in the way of their sustainability and funding, for example, lease negotiations with the City of Cape Town, land use disputes, and compliance with government regulations.
Women in Small Business
We offer private legal services to ECD providers and support women in small businesses with leadership and entrepreneurial skills. We believe that empowering ECD providers with the knowledge of their rights and responsibilities will equip them to offer the highest standard of ECD services to South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens. Additionally, we assist with practical problems like labour law issues, human resources, enrolment contracts, regulatory compliance, business structuring advice and risk mitigation. ECD principals are typically women, mainly black women, typically operating on a shoe string in challenging circumstances. They are an incredible group of strong, resilient and resourceful people and it is an honour to support them.
Our services have extended to assist other women in small business and education, offering legal opinions on their rights and responsibilities, structuring, business, legal and leadership advice. South Africa’s often overlooked women entrepreneurs offer untapped potential for inclusive growth, employment and fundamental economic transformation. Our strategy is to support early childhood development at one end of the spectrum and women entrepreneurs at the other, to build a pipeline of enthusiastic, financially included, economically productive citizens, equipped to build South Africa now and into the future.