Bringing lawyers to the streets of Durban

AS part of the fourth year of their studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) law students are encouraged to do a Street Law project – to get a better understanding of what the law is like when it hits the streets. In 2018, they started going to the Denis Hurley Centre as an option, and post-Covid, the centre has welcomed new students back this year.

According to the Denis Hurley Centre’s director, Raymond Perrier, 20 students visited the centre two days each week from April to June, and another 20 are now completing their outreach at the centre from August to October.
“The students engage with the homeless people in Paddy Kearney Way between breakfast and lunch. But they also help prepare and serve the meals; this is an important way of them building the trust of our visitors,” said Perrier.

Perrier says that one of the hardest lessons for the students to learn is that most of the time they cannot solve problems – but they can be valuable just by being willing to listen.
“They work in pairs, and there is always at least one Zulu speaker in each pair to facilitate easy communication. Where appropriate, they can give advice on legal matters and also teach people about their rights. In some cases, they take a witness statement of an incident – or help a homeless person to learn what makes for a good witness statement in the future.”

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According to fourth-year student Vuyiswa Simamane, the Street Law project at Denis Hurley has been a game-changer for her. “It gives us practical experience because it is a very different environment from the lecture rooms. For me, it helped me discover the field of law that I would like to practise in. I realised that I had a passion for Human Rights Law because I started working with people who are marginalised and people who are not able to easily access legal help. It gives us experiential knowledge, as well, because when dealing with some of these cases, sometimes we have to reach out to institutions such as the High Court or the Road Accident Fund. We get so much experience before we enter the legal field from this outreach programme. It will allow us to adapt better to the industry once we enter it. It’s been game-changing for me.”

Dr Janine Hicks, the lecturer in charge of the programme added, “I deeply appreciate the opportunity this partnership creates for our final-year students to connect … connect with this community of ‘other’ citizens, connect with social-justice issues, and for many, connect with their passion for why they chose to study Law in the first place. I love seeing how this experience unlocks their insight into systemic failures in access to rights and justice, and how the Law can be used to leverage transformation for those neglected by the state.”

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Perrier says that the centre will soon be launching a regular Street Law clinic in conjunction with the UKZN Law Clinic at the Denis Hurley Centre.
“A workshop has taken place with students from this year and students who have offered to come back from previous years and initially work at the regular clinic. We want to be careful that we do not over-promise, and so the students will be thoroughly briefed about what issues they can and cannot take on and how they can connect street-living people to free professional legal services,” said the director.