Events Vacancies


01/05/2025

Application: Freedom Under Fire

A short course for community-based paralegals

Overview

South Africa has shifted after our last elections. Three decades after democracy, inequality is worse than ever. Corruption, landlessness, failing services, and political distrust fuel growing frustration, while the country teeters on the edge of instability, caught between coalition politics and opportunistic rising authoritarian forces. But South Africa is not alone—across the globe, inequality is deepening, crises are escalating, and the powerful are tightening their grip.

How did we get here? And more importantly—where are we headed?

This course is a deep dive into the forces shaping our present and future. It unpacks South Africa’s shifting political landscape, the global rise of authoritarianism, and the intersections of freedom, African solidarity, and democratic resistance. Designed for community-based paralegals, it equips those on the frontlines of injustice with the tools to challenge power, defend rights, and navigate an uncertain future.

The struggle is far from over. Are we ready to take it on?

After the successes of the last three year’s courses, this course returns for its fourth edition. Tailored for community-based paralegals and fieldworkers, it addresses a spectrum of community needs, from gender-based violence to labor disputes. By delving into historical roots and broader democratic frameworks, Freedom Under Fire equips participants with context and insights essential for navigating contemporary challenges in social justice. This year, the course hones in on two critical aspects we’ve learned serve community-based paralegals well: intensive exposure to history, debate and theory; and practical work through case studies led by peers and specialists operating in and around law and activism.

Woven through the course are these questions

1. What do the realities that community-based paralegals deal with on an ongoing basis reveal about the texture of South Africa’s democracy?

2. How can we explain the persistent and growing inequalities and injustices that dominate South Africa today?

3. What are some of the big struggles waged in South Africa today? What do they teach us about freedom, resistance and imagination?

4. What were the freedoms promised in the past? What have we come to enjoy in the present? What are now under threat that need protecting?

Participants in the course will consider these questions, locate them historically and look at their theoretical underpinnings.

Approach

The course is residential and has two modules, each running over five days. It will complement the knowledge and experience acquired by community-based paralegals in their practice with conceptual tools designed to better understand why the South Africa we live in today, is a nightmare for so many and what can be done to change this. Between the two residential modules participants will engage in online contact, tasks and support.

A range of creative techniques – interactive games, role plays and scenario exercises, seminars, film screenings, fireside chats, reading circles, guest lectures, activist panels, discussion groups and debates – will be used in delivering the course.

Who can apply:

Participants must be engaged in community paralegal work and provide legal assistance and dispute resolution services to communities on a range of issues.

In selecting the participants, Tshisimani will consider geographic spread, gender, age and period of service to the community. We will make every effort to draw participants from different age groups and with different levels of experience, aiming for a diverse mixture in the learning space.

Participants are expected to commit to attending the entire duration of the course, which runs over two blocks: the advice office or place of work needs to approve leave for the applicant to attend these two residential modules.

Module Dates and Details

Online Briefing session for prospective applicants: 11 April at 2pm

This is an online information session via Zoom where Tshisimani staff will run through what to expect from the course in terms of content, logistics, where it will take place and who it is intended for.

Module 1: Sunday 25 May – Friday 30 May

Module 2: Sunday 26 October to Friday 31 October

An expression of support from your community advice office or organisation is mandatory so we can ensure you have leave for these dates.

Space is limited to 25 participants. 

Course summary:

Module 1: Promises of freedom: past and present challenges

Sunday 25 May – Friday 30 May

Why do poverty, racism, and inequality persist decades after democracy and where do we see them today? This first module takes a deep dive into history, theory, and current affairs to unpack South Africa’s systemic injustices—tracing colonial conquest, segregation, and economic exploitation to reveal how race, class, and gender shaped today’s society. Through debate and co-learning, participants will critically examine post-1994 political and policy choices while engaging with contemporary struggles for freedom in 2025. By the end of this module, participants will gain a strong intellectual and experiential grounding to analyse power, inequality, and the gains and losses of freedom faced by communities.

By the end of this module, participants would have grappled with:

1. What were the key demands of ordinary people in the struggle against apartheid?

2. What do these realities reveal about how our society functions, who rules South Africa today, different group interests and the nature of the post-1994 state?

3. In what ways are the everyday issues that community-based paralegals deal with linked to unfolding struggles for dignity and freedom? 

Module 2: Paths to liberation

Sunday 26 October to Friday 31 October

This module moves from theory to action—exploring strategies for radical change and tackling real-world case studies. Participants will work individually and in teams to analyse pressing social and economic crises, applying knowledge from Module One to workshop responses. Through debate, guest seminars and engagments, and hands-on learning, this module sharpens the tools needed to navigate power, challenge injustice, and rethink what meaningful change looks like in South Africa today.

By the end of this module, participants should be able to:

1. Critically assess the different responses to the ongoing crisis in their respective communities and in SA more broadly,

2. Map the struggles in their different communities and identify, starting with their own experience, the layers in society today that are invested in and most capable of ushering in social justice

3. Locate the role of their practice in unfolding struggles to change the nature of South African society today.

To apply, please submit the following 

  1. Submit a short bio by filling in this Google form
  2. The leadership or official from your organisation or advice office needs to email us a letter of recommending you for the course and ensuring that you will be available. This email should include:
    a) Who the official is; who you are; and that the organisation supports your application for this course
    b) That you are granted leave to attend the two modules on both dates.
    c) Why they believe your attendance in the course will benefit their work.

    Send the email to info@tshisimani.org.za ensuring your name and the organisation you work for/with is included in the letter.
  3. Whatsapp a short video/voice note as described below to 0737099909.

Instructions for short video or voice note task (3 minutes):

Record and send a 3-minute video or voice note stating the following:

  • Your name and where you come from.
  • The name of the advice office/organisation where you are located.
  • Tell us a story about a case that you dealt with in the last 5 years. 
  • What is the one thing you learnt from this case?
  • Why do you want to form part of this course?

Your video or voice note should not be longer than 3 minutes

Video and voice note tips. Ensure that you record in a quiet place with no noise interruptions. Clean your camera before recording on video. Use the questions only as a guide. Do not repeat the questions on the video or voice note as this will take more time. Send your video or voice note along with your name and contact details to this WhatsApp number 0737099909.

The deadline for applications is 1 May 2025. Late applications will not be considered. If we have not contacted you by the 9th of May, then please consider your application unsuccessful.

Slides from the Information Session on the Course

Freedom-Under-Fire-Info-SessionDownload

For more information contact:
Email: info@tshisimani.org.za
www.tshisimani.org.za
Twitter: @Tshisimani
Facebook: @tshisimaniCAE

Board Staff


Asher Gamedze

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa. He works in a freelance capacity as an itinerant researcher and writer, a musician – both as a bandleader in his own projects and a session player in others’ – as well as an organizer, and a sometimes popular educator, in autonomous cultural and social movements. 

Course content Legal Training Programme Legal Training Programmes Materials


Law for Social Change

This programme, Law for Social Change, is the result of our ongoing partnership with the Mott Foundation. It aims to cultivate and raise consciousness amongst social justice activists and movements on how law can be used/leveraged to advance our struggles. This programme looks at the historical impact of legislation in South Africa, particularly how it has been used to dispossess and marginalise people. It further explores the history of our constitution, evaluating its potential as an instrument to advance our collective struggles. The program also looks at precedents where the law has been effectively used to achieve various struggles. Additionally, it emphasises or highlight the strengths, potential, and limitations of leveraging legal frameworks as instruments for driving social transformation.

The legal activist’s school was a four-day program from the 1st – 4th of April 2024, in King Williams Town, Eastern Cape. We had 25 activists from various movements of different sectors active mainly in rural communities of the Eastern Cape. This was an intersectional group in terms of age and gender, a diverse group of young and old people. 

2024-EC-UNDERSTANDING-THE-LAW-FOR-SOCIAL-JUSTICEDownload

Course content Legal Training Programme Legal Training Programmes Materials


Rethinking Democracy

South Africa boasts the highest inequality globally, despite three decades of democratic governance. Landlessness, exploitation, poverty, racism, violence, corruption, and service collapse persist. Politics faces mounting distrust, associated with elitism, patronage, and divisive agendas. Different explanations and answers to these challenges are presented. As the 2024 elections approach in South Africa and 64 other countries globally, political parties take centre stage: each representing different – or perhaps similar – explanations and answers to a countries challenges. Through delving into these challenges, explanations, and proposed paths to a better future, this course navigates South Africa’s past, present, and potential futures: exploring themes of African solidarity, critically assessing 1994’s significance, integrating global democratic perspectives, and scrutinizing elections’ role in participatory democracy.

Designed specifically for community-based paralegals and fieldworkers who provide a range of services to the communities they serve – including information access,  support with gender based violence cases and matters,  assistance with evictions, labour, consumer and social security matters as well as different kinds of dispute resolution – this course will locate the historical roots of the day-to-day issues that advice offices contend with and contextualize them within broader contestations, resistance and imaginations about democracy.  

Woven through the course are these questions: 

  1. What do the realities that community-based paralegals deal with on an ongoing basis reveal about the texture of South Africa’s democracy? 
  1. How can we explain the persistent and growing inequalities and injustices that dominate South Africa today, nearly 30 years into democratic rule? 
  2. What are some of the big struggles waged in South Africa today? What do they teach us about democracy, resistance and imagination?
  3. What does a democracy for the many, not a few, look like? What can we learn – from the past and today – about attempts to craft expansive and radical notions of democracy? 
Rethinking-Democracy-2024-Programme-FinalModule One
Rethinking-Democracy-Module-2-FinalModule Two

Events


29/02/2024

From Crisis to Activism: Palestine and the Awakening of South African Consciousness

In the face of relentless oppression, a powerful surge of solidarity emerges. From South Africa’s core, activism resounds, signaling an awakening. Week on week, communities organise, fueled by a common cause for Gaza. Artists defy with their creations, while our journalists see their peers risk everything for silenced voices. Youth, academics, and inter-faith alliances stand firm, demanding justice and accountability. Economic boycotts reverberate, challenging capitalism’s complicity in genocide and imperialism.

In this symphony of solidarity, South Africa’s political consciousness ignites.

Event Brief


Since October 2023, South Africa has witnessed a radical awakening of activism and organizing across various sectors in response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine. From artists forming collectives and engaging in radical art, to journalists swept by the martyrdom of their Palestinian counterparts; from youth organising for justice to academics and students advocating for the boycott of Israel: our communities demonstrate a (re)elevation of political consciousness South Africa has not witnessed for very long. This event brings together representatives from different sectors, including academia, journalism, arts and culture, youth, labour and inter-faith communities, to reflect on and celebrate the impact of this solidarity movement on their work. Join us as we harness this energy to reflect, sing, critique, celebrate and drive towards further solidarity. Towards Palestinian – and through it our collective – liberation.

Programme Overview

TimeActivitySpeakers/Facilitators
9:30Tea and Registration 
10:00-10:05Welcome and introduction of Citizen Commons partnershipGreg Ruiters, UWC School of Governance
10:05-10:10Overview of day and introduction of part one of the event.

Introduction to the event and speakers representing different sectors (inter-faith, arts, youth, academia, community organising, indigenous, journalism, economic and labour) giving short 5min introductions of how their area has been impacted and seen shifts in organising since October.  This takes place in a plenary format at UWC’s Senate Hall with poetic interventions and song dispersed between speakers. 		Mohammed Abdulla, Wadi Dyani and Ruth Wilson Gilmore
10:10-10:15Input on inter-faith organisingJulia Hope, Thandi Gamedze and Iman Omar
10:15-10:20Input on youth organisingEqual Education
10:20-10:25Input on academic boycottLeigh Ann Naidoo & representatives of UWC PSC
10:25-10:30Poetry interludeIman Omar
10:30-10:35Input on labourAbeedah Adams, GIWUSA
10:35-10:40Input on artsDean Hutton
10:40- 10:45Input on journalismAtiyyah Khan
10:45-10:50Input on indigenous solidarityTaariq Jenkins
Tea Break
11:00-12:30Introduction to Part Two of the event.

Each sector then separates into break away groups for up to an hour and a half.  These break away groups are facilitated by representatives of those who have been actively organising and engaging in solidarity work since October and are intended to be spaces of reflection/education/mobilisation/sharing/discussion/planning. Out of this we hope that some form of feedback/reporting in the form of a poster/collage/timeline/mindmap/social media piece/written piece can be shared with the larger group. 		Guest speakers from different sectors; Tshisimani staff; UWC organising team and UWC PSC volunteers.
12:30-13:30Lunch
13:30 –14:30 Opening of arts and cultural space

After lunch a cultural space will open up with artists sharing music, spoken word and viewing of art pieces from Palestinian artist Ashraf curated by a representative of Creative Knowledge Resources 		Creative Knowledge Resources, Jazz artists, poets
14:30Vote of thanks, closing and invitation to future eventsSiviwe Mdoda

Vacancies


Vacancy: Curriculum Developer & Educator

Based at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, the TCAE seeks to appoint as soon as possible a:

CURRICULUM DEVELOPER & EDUCATOR 

This exciting full-time position includes five key areas, which are held together with other Tshisimani staff:

1) Educator role

  • Plan and teach courses offered by the Centre, using a range of teaching methodologies, including drawing on the experiences of formal and popular education traditions.
  • Facilitate discussions, seminars, programs related to partners of the centre.
  • Host internal seminars, sharing relevant research outcomes with Tshisimani staff to broaden the centre’s facilitation capabilities and capacities.
  • Design lesson plans for relevant sessions which include session, objectives, tasks and context.
  • Execute lesson plans to produce the intended educational outcomes.
  • Revisit lesson plans and redesign the lesson plan after evaluating the outcomes, where necessary.

2) Curriculum and materials development

  • Develop curricula and course material for courses offered by the Centre, as well as material for web-based dissemination, podcasts and weekly lectures, debates, discussions and documentary film screenings. 
  • Collaborate with activists in the development of materials relevant to their campaign and organisational growth and sustainability.
  • Research and develop course materials using a range of different media, and bringing in experts, when appropriate, to run sessions.

3) Project Management and Leadership

  • Working with the programme team as well as independently to co-ordinate activities run by the Centre – e.g. residential activist schools, film showings, weekly political discussions, lectures by visiting experts etc.
  • Project leadership includes the development of concept notes, proposals, and project reports. It also includes the completion of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), coordination of the programme team and leading of programme design, compilation of materials (e.g., readers) and sourcing of outside expertise. 
  • Holding and co-ordinating projects with Tshisimani cohorts, constituencies, and partners to whom Tshisimani offers educational offerings.
  • Ensuring effective communication with Tshisimani cohorts, constituencies, and partners, facilitating their involvement with Tshisimani staff in lesson planning, facilitation, organisation, and evaluation of educational activities
  • Oversee and work closely with the relevant staff regarding logistics and related administration to translate conceptualised events into actuality.

4) Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

  • Embed the formal MEL system of the centre in the design and execution of programs which includes but is not limited to: 
    • Recording and keeping track of meetings and communication between Tshisimani and Tshisimani partners 
    • Collate and collect materials, photographs and media related to facilitated educational programmes.
    • Collect feedback (WhatsApp, emails and testimonials) about workshops and educational offerings.
    • Write program reports and briefs about developments within a particular project highlighting the notable shifts and changes in a tshisimani partner for reporting purposes.

5) Project and Organisational Support                                          

  • Providing support to projects and programmes led by other Tshisimani staff members. This includes assistance with conceptualisation, lesson and activity design and facilitation, both for regular meetings and workshops and residential camps and courses. 
  • Assist with the development of relevant funding applications to support envisioned projects of the centre.
  • Contribute and participate in organisational processes including:
    • Mid-year reviews
    • Strategic planning
    • Staff and program meetings
    • Input on policy
    • Recruitment

Requirements:

Minimum qualifications: 

a relevant post-graduate degree or equivalent, relevant experience. Fluency in English and one additional African language.

Minimum experience:

At least 3 – 5 years’ experience in a similar role.  Experience of working in an activist organisation working for social justice, and part of an activist network which aligns with the overall aims of the Centre. Excellent communication and strong research skills. Track record in political education. Ability to work as part of a team as well as independently. Curious, imaginative, proactive and hardworking. Familiarity with Microsoft Office and basic computer literacy. Confident in ability to facilitate workshops of large, working-class, participants.

Strong advantages: 

Record of writing and being published in the spheres of activism, social justice or popular education. Ability to communicate complex ideas in interesting and simple ways. Experience with digital publishing platforms such as WordPress, Mailchimp; and social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Please email a CV that includes contact details of three (3) referees; and a letter of motivation, detailing how you meet the requirements for this post, and your interest and suitability to work at Tshisimani. Generic letters are strongly advised against.

Kindly send these two documents with ‘(Curriculum Developer & Educator)’ in the subject line to info@tshisimani.org.za by 15 February 2024. If you have not been contacted within 3 weeks of the closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful. 

The TCAE is committed to equity in employment practices and is keen to make appointments to meet these objectives. Priority will thus be given to young black women and LGBTQIA+ applicants. The Centre reserves the right not to make an appointment. 

Events


21/07/2023

An Un/Just Transition: climate crisis and the future of Cape Town

What is a Just Transition? What does it entail? What does this mean for conditions in my community? More importantly, what is it not?

For the homeless and residents of informal settlements in Cape Town, winter is a dreaded season. Flooding and fires displace communities and make the need for shelter and other humanitarian assistance a priority for the municipality. This is the reality every year and local authorities have resorted to preparing for disaster by allocating resources for relief interventions. Artisanal fishers have shared observations about how the patterns of the ocean are shifting and no longer conform to traditional knowledge of the seas. 

Tshisimani in partnership with UWC’s Chair for Citizenship and Democracy are co-creating a space for the coming together of community activists, students, academics, environmental justice organisations and workers to collectively challenge their understanding of the concept of Unjust Transition.

This participatory workshop aims to provoke our notions of a transition in the context of a deepening climate crisis. 

Featured speakers include: Moniebah Isaacs, Dinga Sikwebu, Patrick Bond, Greg Ruiters, Zelda Holtzman, Ken Salo and Karl Cloete

Date: 21 July 2023
Time: 9:30-15:30
Location: Senate Building, UWC Belleville Campus

Please RSVP to info@tshisimani.org.za as spaces are limited.


Reports


Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education and UWC EMS Faculty announce the co-creation of a Citizens Commons

JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT 

23 June 2023 

The Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education (Tshisimani) and the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) have formed a Citizens Commons to facilitate linkages between students, academics, workers, activists, and communities.

The Citizens Commons, under the aegis of the UWC Chair for Citizenship and Democracy, is part of an emerging niche area for contemporary political thought around citizenship and democracy where academics, workers and students may co-create new ideas and share experiences with grassroots communities and activists.  

Today (23 June 2023), Tshisimani Executive Director Zelda Holtzman and UWC’s Acting Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jose Frantz, signed a formal agreement between the two institutions. 

The Citizens Commons will initiate regular quarterly public events such as popular education workshops, public talks, cultural events, debates, panel discussions and collective work on annual conferences, as well as written and video outputs, including scholarly books, articles, popular handbooks, booklets, and documentary films.

UWC’s rich legacy as an activist university was firmly established during the height of apartheid colonialism, with students, workers and academics oriented towards the fight for liberation

 The descriptor of an ‘activist’ university references the involvement of UWC students and academics who were oriented towards the struggle to end apartheid and to fight for equality and liberation in tandem with anti-apartheid activists across the country. 

Tshisimani, on the other hand, was established in 2015 as an activist education centre orientated towards supporting working-class social justice movements, organisations and community groups with relevant, contemporary, and catalytic education intended to advance social justice activism towards alternatives to structural and endemic racial capitalism. The centre specialises in popular education curriculum development, creative arts methodology and the creations of curriculum and materials with reach across the country and continent. 

The crises of capitalism, race and gender-based violence, rising global inequality, the climate crisis and increasing risks of multiple health pandemics put increasing pressure on the global political south. This political moment, locally and globally, calls for the intentionality of combining resources with the common purpose of social-justice oriented social movements and actors to change the trajectory of neoliberalism, the bane of social, environmental, and ecological justice. 

Tshisimani works collaboratively with partners to co-create programmes, curricula and in facilitating education programmes for social justice movements – drawing from a rich Freirean, worker’s education and arts activist history. Programmes are designed to promote critical thinking and to advance tools of analyses among activists. Building ‘new’ theories and knowledge of change are intended to ignite the imagination of alternatives to the current political landscape where such alternatives are aligned to the creation of a more just and equal society.  

“This cooperation marks a new phase for Tshisimani as it widens its focus nationally and regionally, working with partners on the continent and transnationally in the political south, connecting struggles in communities to the works of progressive academics and organic intellectuals.” said Zelda Holtzman, Executive Director for Tshisimani. 

The UWC Chair for Citizenship and Democracy, Professor Gregory Ruiters welcomes this partnership which “will facilitate opportunities for Tshisimani and the EMS faculty, and UWC in general to engage in new forms of knowledge creation. Methodologically the commons seeks to advance a new form of solidaristic knowledge creation by incorporating the idea of multiple mappings of democracy and diverse spaces and times of citizenship.”

As an exercise in “argumentative democracy and citizenship”, the citizen commons draws on Appadurai’s (2006) thesis that the “right to research” is a precondition of active citizenship. We will explore how we can contribute to the work of non-academic collaborators (community groups, activist networks) to reclaim and deepen democracy; how do we collectively reimagine research aimed at answering and investigating questions that our non-academic collaborators want answered?

For more information about Tshisimani visit us at Office 1:01, Ground Floor, EMS Building on UWC Main Campus, Bellville or www.tshisimani.org.za

Follow, like and engage with Tshisimani on

 www.twitter.com/Tshisimani

 www.facebook.com/tshisimaniCAE/

 www.instagram.com/tshisimani/

Email us on info@tshisimani.org.za or call us on 021 685 3516/8

For Media Inquiries please contact Mo Abdulla on +27 82 908 3828

Board Staff


Boaventura Monjane

Boaventura Monjane holds a Ph.D. in Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship (Sociology), from the CES/Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra. He is based at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS, UWC) as a postdoctoral researcher and is also a fellow of the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies of the Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung. In addition, he is an associate fellow at the Centre for African Studies (CEA, UEM).

Boaventura’s areas of interest and research include agrarian movements, rural politics, food sovereignty, and climate change. He has been involved in agrarian social movements, both locally and internationally, working with the National Farmers Union of Mozambique (UNAC) and the International Secretariat of La Via Campesina. He was also involved in the production of professional film documentaries (Land of Plenty, Land but of a Few and TIERRA EN SUSPENSO: Amenazas y resistencias en Cabo Delgado) on the topics of his interest.