Bonita de Silva

About Bonita

Bonita established de Silva Incorporated Attorneys and Notaries in April 2012, a boutique corporate and commercial legal practice based in Windhoek, Namibia. Given its highly specialised services, the firm focused on advising a select clientele.

Admitted in April 2008, Bonita holds degrees BCom (Politics Philosophy Economics) and LLB, from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Moreover, Bonita has acquired 16 years of local and international training and experience. She was previously attached to two Chambers Global listed law firms. In 2009, she attended Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the United Kingdom while seconded by the International Lawyers for Africa Organisation to the Magic Circle Law Firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, at their London office’s Banking and Finance Practice.

Since her admission as an attorney in Namibia, Bonita has also completed certificated courses at the University of Cape in Securitisation and Oil and Gas Law and Policy as well as a Certificate in Advanced Programme in Insolvency Litigation and Administration at the University of Pretoria. Bonita was conferred the degree of Master in Business Law (LLM Business Law) from the University of California, Berkeley, a globally top ten ranked law school. She is also a Member of the Berkeley Law Dean’s Circle.

Bonita has Right of Audience in the Supreme Court of Namibia and is an appointed Notary Public, Court Accredited Mediator, as well as an Estates, Trust, and Insolvency Practitioner in addition to holding several professional memberships.

As an elected director since 2010, she was the Vice Chairperson of the Retirement Funds Institute of Namibia. In the same year she joined the Board of Trustees of the Orion Namibia Pension and Provident Funds as an independent trustee. There she chaired the Investment Committee and Strategy Implementation Committee and sat on the Audit and Risk Committee. In addition, she chaired Protektor, a preservation fund, sponsored by Old Mutual Namibia as well.

Bonita was also a member of the Board of Directors of a Tier Three Public Enterprise, the Namibia Water Corporation Limited between 2011 and 2017, as well as the Chairperson of its Board Tender Committee and member of its Audit Committee. In 2014 she was appointed to Chair the Board of Trustees of another Public Enterprise, the National Art Gallery of Namibia. She chaired the Audit and Finance Committee too. In 2018, she was invited to join the Country Committee for the International Lawyers for Africa.  Bonita was a member of the Pharmacy Council of the Health Professions Councils of Namibia between 2019 and 2023 where she sat on both the Executive, Practice, and Professional Conduct Committees. Since 2021, Bonita has also served as a trustee of the Doek Arts Trust, an organisation supporting the literary arts in Namibia.

By appointment of the Icelandic Government, Bonita is also the Honorary Consul General of Iceland to Namibia.

Subsequent to completing her articles Bonita was an Associate then Senior Associate with Koep and Partners, now Bowmans Namibia.