Grahamstown Legal Resource Centre in partnership with parents of local school pupils; mud schools in the Eastern Cape will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.
With the R6.2 billion capital expenditure for the provincial Department of Education, former Transkei mud schools could be demolished and new school facilities built.
Grahamstown Legal Resource Centre in partnership with parents of local school pupils; mud schools in the Eastern Cape will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.
With the R6.2 billion capital expenditure for the provincial Department of Education, former Transkei mud schools could be demolished and new school facilities built.
The plan is to build brick schools with proper sanitation, water tanks, desks and chairs.
Candidate attorney Mzukisi Loliwe said the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation that focuses on people’s rights to housing, the recovering of pension or provident fund monies, land reform for dispossessed communities and children’s rights.
Its aim is to assist communities who suffer under any discrimination; from race and class to economic or social circumstances.
Loliwe said the LRC gives legal aid to those who cannot afford it: “We offer advice and in some cases we litigate for people.”
The centre uses different approaches to help those in need of legal services such as law reform, education, impact litigation and the participation in partnerships with other legal organisations like the Rhodes Law Clinic and the Legal Aid Board.
The LRC sometimes takes class-action law suits, however Loliwe says it is extremely difficult as the centre only has a small office with limited resources.
Access to Justice Project
The centre’s “access to justice” project deals directly with a wide variety of issues: pension and insurance inquiries, consumer protection cases, unemployment insurance claims and workmen’s compensation claims.
The aim of the project is to educate people about the law, support advice offices and provide training to paralegals to enable legal aid and education in communities.
Children's rights and the barriers limiting their education are also a focus – the defective school food scheme, lack of transport to and from school for pupils, under-resourced schools, inadequate infrastructure, discrimination, and inappropriate and illegal disciplinary measures.
HIV/Aids
A massive concern raised on the LRC's website is the ever-increasing number of children who are infected or affected by HIV/Aids through the death of one or both parents, or who have to take care of an ill family member.
The LRC is committed to improving the circumstances of these children and those living in deprived circumstances.
The centre furthermore deals with foster care placement, custody matters and adoptions.
For legal services:
Telephone: 046 622 9230
Address: 116 High Street
