Soweto-based Zola Advice Centre (ZAC) is partnering with the National Alliance for the Development of Community Advice Offices (Nadcao) to provide advice facilities in hostels around Johannesburg in a bid to promote access to the justice system.
“Hostels were meant to be an accommodation facility for migrant workers servicing the private sector. They are now homes to thousands of poor South Africans and migrants who are often ostracised and neglected by both the public and private sector in South Africa,” said Nadcao strategic support coordinator Lungile Kubheka. According to Kubheka hostel communities were often left to fend for themselves and “with the high unemployment rate there seems little hope of breaking the cycle of poverty”.
Themba Manqele said young girls fall pregnant then access the child support grant and live together while young boys start small unsustainable businesses, such as selling sweets at taxi ranks.
“There is clear evidence that advice offices are needed in these communities because they do not only handle issues related to access to justice but also assist with a wide range of socio-economic issues,” said Sikhumbuzo Mabizela, Chief of (the) Izinduna in Gauteng.
“The Zola Advice [Centres] do not follow a one-size-fits-all model, they are flexible,” he said.
Kubheka emphasised that the programme would not succeed without support.
“We are calling on government, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and donors to join the Zola Advice Centre and Nadcao to ensure that the constitutional rights of the people living in hostels are protected so that those who desperately need justice can access it.”
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