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Happy Masondo

Senior Consultant
Corporate, Energy & Infrastructure

Portrait ofHappy Masondo

Happy Masondo

Senior Consultant
Corporate, Energy & Infrastructure

Contact
CMS RM Partners
82 Maude Street
3rd Floor
Sandton
2196 Sandton
Johannesburg
South Africa
Languages Zulu, Setswana, Xhosa, Sesotho, English

Happy is a senior corporate  lawyer with over 25 years of experience, with specialist skills in public interest and constitutional law, renewable energy projects, information technology projects, corporate governance, regulatory advisory services and public private partnerships. 

Her clients include private and public companies, state-owned entities, energy companies, financial institutions, construction and engineering firms, listed organisations, telecommunications companies and IT Firms. 

Before joining CMS, Happy was a partner for nearly 10 years at Werksmans and before that, she was a partner at Prinsloo, Tindle and Andropoulos and seconded as an in-house counsel to Accenture throughout the African continent where Accenture had a presence.

She currently sits, in a non – executive capacity, on a number of boards for companies including Bright Light Solar VCC, ProfitShare Partners, Rand Mutual Assurance and Investec Bank.

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Relevant experience

  • Palama Energy - on the legal, regulatory and administrative requirements of the South African renewable energy procurement programme.
  • Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd - on corporate, statutory and regulatory issues relating to, inter alia, the design, construction and operation of nuclear power and fuel plants.
  • Shanduka Coal - in relation to their long-term supply contract with Eskom Holdings Ltd.
    Soul City - on the legal, regulatory and administrative requirements of the South African renewable energy procurement programme.
  • Subsolar Energy (Pty) Ltd - in various aspects of the matter, including, but not limited to, reviewing and assisting with environmental impact assessments, drafting deeds of sale pertaining to immovable property, regulatory advice on environmental legislation, reviewing, and commenting on energy debt term sheets and general legal advice.  
  • SunEdison - on their compliance with all the relevant environmental permitting requirements and the cession as security of the rights held under their various authorisations.
  • Various entities - in respect of their submissions of a total of 25 projects under the Request for Proposal by the Department of Energy Renewable Energy Procurement Programme (IPP Programme) and continued to act as legal advisor to those projects being award preferred bidder status. These include, amongst others:
    • The largest United States solar photovoltaic manufacturer; and
    • The largest Danish wind turbine manufacturer.
  • Various entities - in respect of the several projects in the wind and solar power categories of the IPP Programme, submitted in bidding rounds 1 and 2 of the IPP Programme:
    • Round 1 – Solar PV:  legal advisors to two project companies in respect of two Solar park project, one of 29 MW and the other 30 MW, valued at over R2 billion, both projects successfully reaching financial close. 
    • Round 1 – Wind:  legal advisors to two project companies in respect of two wind farm projects, one of 72.72 MW and the other 65.4 MW, both projects successfully reaching financial close
    • Round 2 – Wind: we represented a significant international wind developer in two successful bids representing 137.9 MW and 90.8 MW respectively
    • Round 2 – Wind: we represented a significant international wind turbine manufacturer in two successful bids representing 95.33 MW and 194 MW respectively 
    • Round 2 – Solar PV: we represented a significant international solar PV producer in a successful 60 MW bid.
  • MerSETA - with a Service Level Agreement for the provision of Information Technology Services for installation of a new information technology system.
  • ICT Works - on its contract with national department of state regarding the installation of an integrated financial management system throughout the country at all levels of state.
  • AECI - on corporate governance (amongst other regulatory requirements) in all of its entities in 32 countries in the Continent of Africa.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Attorney, Republic of South Africa 
  • Legal Practice Council of South Africa
  • Institute of the Directors of South Africa
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Awards & Rankings

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Publications

  • Co-authored a chapter on South Africa in the Research Handbook on Climate Change Mitigation Law entitled Climate Change Mitigation in South Africa published in March 2015 by E E Elgar Publications Presented papers on renewable energy in South Africa at the Energy Indaba Africa hosted in Johannesburg 
  • Typically publish an article once a month in Without Prejudice, a legal publication by Gleason Publications on energy matters particularly renewable energy
  • How to effectively apply our constitution in the midst of a pandemic | Business Live | 30 September 2021
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Lectures list

  • Presented papers on renewable energy in South Africa at the Energy Indaba Africa hosted in Johannesburg
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Education

  • 2000 – Master of Laws, Duke University, North Carolina, America
  • 1996 – Master of Laws, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 
  • 1993 – Bachelor of Laws, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 1990 – Bachelor of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 
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Expertise

01/07/2020
Covering COVID-19: Level 3 - amended
In our Covering COVID-19 series, our Corporate and Commercial team provided key takeaways for business operations during alert level 4 and alert level 3 in South Africa.  Now, in this supplementary part...
Publication
12/06/2020
Financing a Sustainable Economy
The National Treasury published on 15 May 2020 a draft technical paper: “Financing a Sustainable Economy” for public comment. The draft paper aims to enable stakeholders to better understand the extent...
Publication
12/05/2020
SA firms and SOEs need more than governance tick-boxes
Sugar producer Tongaat Hulett is considering whether to sue several senior executives to recover bonuses and benefits they accrued while presiding over “undesirable accounting practices” at the company...
Press coverage

Feed

26/10/2021
How to effectively apply our constitution in the midst of a pandemic
The issue of vaccination could bring the country’s supreme legal document into frequent play South Africans are justifiably proud of our constitution. Since its promulgation in 1996 the country’s...
Publication