ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice

26/05/2026

ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, acting on behalf of the Ugu Mining Integrity Land Action association and 10 supporting local organisations, are opposing SA Lithium's mining amendment application on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

"“The identities of these supporting organisations have been deliberately withheld due to concerns about potential pressure and intimidation arising from ongoing conflict in the area since SA Lithium commenced its operations,” states All Rise lawyer Janice Tooley.

She argues that SA Lithium has adopted a “hybridised process of its own invention to achieve a number of outcomes contrary to the processes prescribed in the prevailing legislation”. She has also called on SA Lithium to withdraw its current applications and “restart the process in accordance with the correct legal procedures”.

As these legal and procedural disputes continue, the mine expansion is set to engulf most of the Magog settlement, along with several local cane fields, subsistence farms and several ancestral graves."


Business and Human Rights Centre

The homes of more than 800 people on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast face demolition to make way for the expansion of a lithium mine. Lithium is a mineral in high global demand for the manufacture of el…

25/05/2026

Happy Africa Day 🌍

Today we celebrate the continent and its people. We also stand with the communities across Africa who are fighting to protect their land, their water, and their right to exist on their own terms.

In Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, communities in Somkhele have faced years of opencast coal mining - exhumed ancestral graves, black water running from the taps, crops dying in coal dust, and violence used to silence those who resist. In 2020, community leader Ma Fikile Ntshangase was shot dead in her home for opposing the mine's expansion.

Expert psychological reports commissioned by All Rise found that 78% of residents interviewed are living with continuous traumatic stress. Not in the past - right now, today.

Africa Day is about remembering what African communities are still owed: the right to their land, their culture, and a future that has not been traded away.

ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice stands with these communities in court and beyond.

22/05/2026

🌿 Happy hashtag !

At ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, we're marking the day the way we mark every day - fighting for the species, habitats, and ecosystems that make South Africa one of the most extraordinary places on Earth.

And here's the thing: the law is on nature's side. South Africa's Constitution, NEMBA, and our international biodiversity commitments give us powerful tools to protect the natural world. We just have to use them - boldly, independently, and for the long haul.

That's exactly what All Rise was built to do. Whether it's a threatened wetland, a critically endangered species, or a habitat under pressure, we show up with the legal firepower to make a difference. Nature has a voice in our courts. We're here to make sure it's heard. 💚

20/05/2026

South Africa's biodiversity is in a state of severe and accelerated decline. Rhino poaching. The illegal wildlife trade. Invasive alien species are spreading across the Fynbos. The fragmentation of grassland biomes by unregulated agriculture and development. Unscrupulous fossil fuel and ‘critical mineral’ extraction.

Each of these threats has a legal dimension. NEMA, NEMBA, CITES, the National Forests Act, and a suite of international environmental agreements all provide frameworks for intervention. The challenge is not the absence of law - it is the absence of rigorous enforcement and independent legal challenge when that enforcement fails.

Ahead of on 22 May, ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice reflects on what it means to be a legal champion for South Africa's wildlife.

Share this post to mark the day. 🦏🌿

Photo credit: Dennis King

WWF South Africa Love Africa Marketing Wildlife ACT - Focused Conservation Wildoceanssa Wildlands Re:wild William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

13/05/2026

Environmental justice does not fund itself.

At ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, we exist because funders believe that communities have a right to legal representation when their environment and their health are threatened. That investment makes it possible for us to take on the cases that matter most, not just the ones that are commercially viable.

Behind every case, every EIA challenge, every community we support is a network of partners and supporters who make this work real.

If your organisation funds earth or environmental justice, climate litigation, or public interest law in Africa, we would welcome a conversation. 🌿

Ford Foundation Save Our Seas Foundation Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism Daily Maverick Ecofluency Eco-Logic Awards Ocean Impact William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Bertha Foundation Wildlands Re:wild King's College London

13/05/2026

Watch the recording of KZN Conservancies' webinar with ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice's Kaliope Geldenhuys here!

10/05/2026

Today we are celebrating Mother's Day. With the exception of our young candidate attorney, all of us at ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice are mothers. All of our Board members are mothers too.

We know what it's like to juggle mothering with working. We also know that it's impossible to work well if you don't feel able to parent well, so we look after and support each other in both roles.

To all the working moms out there - remember how amazing you are. We see you and we are proud of you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Kaliope Geldenhuys
Lihle Mbokazi
Kirsten Youens
Love Africa Marketing

05/05/2026

May is Biodiversity Month, and in South Africa, that means something extraordinary.

We are one of only 17 mega-diverse countries on the planet. Our fynbos, our grasslands, our coastline - each holds species found nowhere else on earth. The Nama-Karoo, though less rich in strict endemics, remains a biome of remarkable ecological significance, shaped by ancient arid landscapes and bordered by six other biomes.

But biodiversity loss is accelerating, driven by habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species, and the relentless pressure of industrial development.

At ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, protecting biodiversity sits at the heart of what we do. This May, we will be sharing content on what the law can and must do to protect South Africa's natural world ahead of on 22 May.

WWF South Africa WESSA Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa Love Africa Marketing Kaliope Geldenhuys IAIAsa KZN Branch KZN Conservancies IAIAsa

27/04/2026

Today South Africa celebrates Freedom Day, thirty-two years since the first democratic elections and the birth of a constitutional order built on dignity, equality, and rights.

Among the rights enshrined in that Constitution is Section 24: the right to an environment that is not harmful to health or wellbeing, and the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations.

Environmental rights are not separate from the freedom South Africans won in 1994. They are an expression of it. The right to breathe clean air, to drink clean water, to live without the burden of industrial pollution - these are freedoms too.

At ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice we use the law to make that constitutional promise real - for the communities who need it most.

Happy Freedom Day. 🇿🇦🌿

22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day 2026. 🌍

Today we take a moment to honour the extraordinary community of lawyers, scientists, researchers, journalists, and community organisers advancing environmental justice in South Africa and beyond. Their work is tireless, often difficult, and absolutely vital.

At ALL RISE - Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, we are reminded that this is never a solo effort. It is built on partnerships, shared expertise, and the courage of communities who refuse to accept harm as the way things have to be.

We are deeply grateful to walk alongside organisations like the Ford Foundation Love Africa MarketingDaily Maverick IAIAsa Global Greengrants Fund ClientEarth MACUA & WAMUA Black Girls Rising Natural Justice S.D.C.E.A. Southern Africa Trust Living Limpopo Ecofluency Eco-Logic Awards, and the many others who strengthen this work every single day.

Tag a colleague or partner doing important environmental work in the comments below. Let's celebrate them. 🌿