Legal Resources Centre

Legal Resources Centre The LRC is a human rights organization in South Africa. We have offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Makhanda and Cape Town.

We empower individuals and communities through the law - to promote social justice, champion equality and realise the human rights enshrined in our Constitution. We use the law as an instrument of justice for the vulnerable and marginalised, including poor, homeless, and landless people and communities who suffer discrimination by reason of race, class, gender, disability or by reason of social, e

conomic, and historical circumstances. Our work takes us from the heart of urban cities to the most remote rural areas in South Africa. We also participate in networks that involve the Southern African region and the African continent. More than 70 lawyers and staff work for the LRC from our four regional offices.

LGBTQIA+ women should not have to hide who they are to be safe online.Digital spaces can offer LGBTQIA+ people a place t...
23/08/2026

LGBTQIA+ women should not have to hide who they are to be safe online.

Digital spaces can offer LGBTQIA+ people a place to find community, express themselves, share information and participate in public life. Yet being visible online can also expose people to abuse that targets their gender, sexuality, race, class and other parts of who they are.

This is one form of technology facilitated gender based violence. It occurs when digital tools are used to cause physical, sexual, psychological, social, political or economic harm, or to restrict a person’s rights and freedoms.

This abuse is not experienced in the same way by everyone. An effective legal response must understand how different systems of power intersect. The harm someone experiences, the way they are targeted and the support available to them can all be shaped by their gender, sexuality, race, class and everyday circumstances.

South Africa’s Constitution protects equality and prohibits unfair discrimination. Yet LGBTQIA+ people continue to experience stigma, discrimination and violence. Online abuse often reflects and amplifies these harms, with young LGBTQIA+ people particularly vulnerable to harassment intended to intimidate, isolate or silence them.

LGBTQIA+ people should not have to withdraw from digital spaces because institutions, platforms and media organisations have failed to provide adequate protection.

This Women’s Month, the Legal Resources Centre is highlighting these experiences and wants to hear from LGBTQIA+ women who have encountered online abuse. If this reflects something you or someone you know has experienced, contact us on WhatsApp at 066 173 3258 or email [email protected].

20/08/2026

Women should not have to leave digital spaces in order to be safe.

Digital spaces have become part of everyday life. They are where we work, learn, connect, share ideas and take part in public conversations. Yet for many women, being visible online can come at a cost. An opinion, an article or simply doing one’s job can lead to threats, harassment or targeted abuse.

Over time, this can cause women to avoid certain subjects, censor what they say, stop publishing or leave platforms entirely. Women journalists are particularly exposed because their work requires them to participate publicly. When they are pushed out of these spaces, the public also loses access to information and democratic debate is weakened.

These experiences form part of what is known as technology facilitated gender based violence. A woman may receive threats or sexualised messages, be persistently followed across platforms, discover that someone is impersonating her, or become the target of an organised attack. Her personal information may also be shared without her consent. Although the methods differ, each uses technology to intimidate, harm or silence.

This Women’s Month, the Legal Resources Centre is highlighting these experiences and wants to hear from women who have encountered online abuse. If this reflects something you or someone you know has experienced, contact us on WhatsApp at 066 173 3258 or email [email protected].

A significant victory for Eastern Cape schools!Today, the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda made a final order declari...
19/08/2026

A significant victory for Eastern Cape schools!

Today, the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda made a final order declaring that the Eastern Cape Department of Education’s decisions to underfund public schools between 2020 and 2022, and to withhold 33.75% of their allocations in the 2023 - 2025 financial years, were unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid.

The Court confirmed that, unless the Department complies with the strict requirements for a lawful funding plan, schools must receive at least the national minimum amount allocated for every learner. The Department cannot simply retain a portion of the money allocated to schools and decide how to spend it on their behalf. Schools and their governing bodies must be able to use the funding allocated to them to respond to the real needs of their learners.

The Department must report to the Court every three months for the next year on its compliance and the steps it is taking to ensure that every Eastern Cape school receives its correct allocation for the 2027/2028 financial year, based on its quintile and number of enrolled learners.

This important result follows the persistence of the Makhanda Circle of Unity and the school governing bodies of Ntsika Secondary School, Hoërskool PJ Olivier and Tyantyi Lower Primary School. Their action has helped secure greater protection for schools and learners across the province.

We congratulate the LRC legal team on this achievement and thank our clients for entrusting us with this important case.

Look out for our full press statement.



Section27

A school cannot provide a full education on only 60% of its budget.On 19 August 2026, the Eastern Cape High Court in Mak...
18/08/2026

A school cannot provide a full education on only 60% of its budget.

On 19 August 2026, the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda will hear a case challenging years of underfunding at public schools across the province. The Makhanda Circle of Unity and three public schools, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, are taking the Eastern Cape Education Department, the Minister of Basic Education and National Treasury to court.

In the current financial year, no fee schools should receive R1 835 per learner. However, the Department is retaining 40% of these allocations, leaving schools with only R1 101 per learner to cover textbooks, stationery, maintenance, municipal services and other essential expenses.

The consequences are felt in classrooms. Parents who are already surviving on child support grants have been asked to provide toilet paper, cleaning products and copying paper. Teachers and principals have used their own money to buy stationery and textbooks. Some schools have had their water and electricity disconnected because they could not pay their municipal accounts.

The applicants are asking the Court to declare the Department’s funding decisions unlawful and unconstitutional, and to direct it to return funds previously withheld from schools.

The right to basic education must determine what learners receive, not the limits of a provincial budget.

For more information: https://lrc.org.za/eastern-cape-schools-challenge-years-of-underfunding/

Appeal granted!The precedent-setting judgment handed down by Justice Kollapen, has been lauded by Wild Coast communities...
14/08/2026

Appeal granted!

The precedent-setting judgment handed down by Justice Kollapen, has been lauded by Wild Coast communities and environmental organisations (the Applicants) who brought their case against the two oil companies to the Constitutional Court in September 2025 after Shell and Impact Africa had planned to explore for oil and gas off the Wild Coast coastline, based on an exploration right received in 2014.

The whole administrative process and the decision to grant the exploration right is set aside, and thus the oil parties do not have the right to explore for oil.

For centuries colonialism and capitalism have enabled a system that ignores the rights of indigenous people in their own land. At last we have been able to assert the rights of indigenous people over the profits of global corporations.

This is a win not just for us as Indigenous People, but also for the environment and the planet.

Awaiting judgment: Shell’s offshore ambitions or the rights of Wild Coast communities?Tomorrow at 10:00, the Constitutio...
13/08/2026

Awaiting judgment: Shell’s offshore ambitions or the rights of Wild Coast communities?

Tomorrow at 10:00, the Constitutional Court will deliver judgment in the long running legal battle over Shell’s exploration right for oil and gas off the Wild Coast.

Both the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal found that the right was unlawfully granted. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal allowed Shell an opportunity to apply for its renewal, subject to a further public participation process.

Wild Coast communities challenged this remedy. Their position is clear: consultation cannot be added at the end to rescue an unlawful process. Communities must be meaningfully consulted before decisions are made that could affect their ancestral waters, livelihoods, culture and spiritual connection to the ocean.

The Constitutional Court will now decide whether Shell may still seek to renew the unlawful right after further public participation, or whether the exploration right must be set aside entirely.

Whatever the outcome, Shell cannot proceed on the basis of the flawed consultation process that accompanied the original application.

We will share the judgment tomorrow and explain what it means for Wild Coast communities and the future of offshore exploration.



Natural Justice
GreenCounsel
ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice
Greenpeace International

A woman’s right to land should not depend on a man.This Women’s Month, we reflect on how unequal access to land and prop...
12/08/2026

A woman’s right to land should not depend on a man.

This Women’s Month, we reflect on how unequal access to land and property continues to affect women across South Africa.

Land reform cannot succeed while women remain excluded from decisions about the homes, land and estates they have helped build.

The cases highlighted in this post show how public interest litigation can challenge discrimination and secure change that reaches far beyond those who first approached the courts.

The images used are illustrative and do not depict the women named or any LRC clients.

Land reform cannot succeed while women are left behind.Following last week’s hearing in the Western Cape High Court conc...
11/08/2026

Land reform cannot succeed while women are left behind.

Following last week’s hearing in the Western Cape High Court concerning challenges to the constitutionality of the Expropriation Act, we are continuing the conversation about what meaningful land reform must achieve.

This Women’s Month, we are drawing attention to the barriers that continue to prevent women, particularly poor and working class Black women, from accessing land, securing tenure and exercising meaningful control over it.

Institutions are not built by buildings, logos or job titles. They are built by people.Since 1979, remarkable women have...
09/08/2026

Institutions are not built by buildings, logos or job titles. They are built by people.

Since 1979, remarkable women have helped shape the Legal Resources Centre. They challenged apartheid laws, led the organisation through periods of change, trained new generations of lawyers and paralegals, made legal assistance more accessible to communities and opened new frontiers in land, environmental and consumer rights.

While many more women have helped build and shape the LRC, we honour eight of them this Women’s Day: Felicia Kentridge, Pinky Madlala, Thandi Orleyn, Angela Andrews, Janet Love, Wilmien Wicomb, Nomfundo Gobodo and Durkje Gilfillan.

Their contributions are different, but they teach us the same important lesson: injustice must first be recognised before it can be challenged.

This Women’s Month, we will highlight three urgent challenges facing women across South Africa and share how the LRC is working to address them: the barriers preventing women from accessing and controlling land, the threats and abuse women face in digital spaces, and sexual corruption, an often unnamed abuse of power that makes access to jobs, education, housing and services conditional on sexual favours.

Through litigation, advocacy, research and engagement with affected communities, the LRC is working to expose these barriers, strengthen legal protection and build greater accountability.

Because harms that remain unnamed and barriers that remain unseen are easier to ignore. Once we recognise them, we can begin to challenge them.

05/08/2026

Expropriation is not new, but its role in advancing land reform remains contested.

This week, the Western Cape High Court is hearing three consolidated challenges to the constitutionality of provisions of the Expropriation Act. The applicants and the amici supporting their challenges have concluded their submissions, and the Court is now hearing from the respondents and the amici defending the Act.

The LRC represents the Association for Rural Advancement, AFRA, which has been admitted as amicus curiae in support of the constitutionality of the Act. We expect to make our oral submissions on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Expropriation is neither new nor unique to South Africa. Governments across the world use it to acquire property for a public purpose, such as building roads, dams or other essential infrastructure.

South Africa’s Constitution goes further by recognising that expropriation may also take place in the public interest, which expressly includes the country’s commitment to land reform. The Expropriation Act gives practical effect to this constitutional framework while protecting people against the arbitrary deprivation of property.

This podcast clip explains why South Africa needed a new expropriation framework and how section 25 balances the protection of property with the constitutional obligation to advance land reform.

If you are interested in learning more about the Expropriation Act, watch our full podcast episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG91bydvTg

Address

2nd Floor West Wing, Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill, 1 Kotze Street, Braamfontein
Johannesburg
2001

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 16:30
Tuesday 08:00 - 16:30
Wednesday 08:00 - 16:30
Thursday 08:00 - 16:30
Friday 08:00 - 01:00

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Legal Resources Centre posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Legal Resources Centre:

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category