Events Vacancies


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


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

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? 

Minisite


#ImagingingOtherwise Arts Activism Toolkit

The final #ImaginingOtherwise project is an Arts Activism toolkit. This toolkit intentionally brings together case studies of innovative arts activism practice from the global South, activities to develop one’s own art activism, and different ways to think about why creativity, the arts, and social justice can work together. This toolkit is free to down-load and  published under a creative commons license.

Share widely: we would love feedback!




Course content Minisite Visual aid


Youth Arts Toolkit

The Youth Arts Toolkit is a collection of workshops (some online, some in person) that were developed over the year of the Imagining Otherwise project (2020 -2021). This resource is for anyone who wants to use the arts as a means of exploring social justice issues with young people, and includes drama, writing, and creative mapping workshops that the team (Tshisimani, Bottom Up and University of Leeds and freelance artists) developed. We would love feedback on this resource, and how you might or have used it. Please send to info@tshisimani.org.za  

Course content Materials Minisite Visual aid


Pocket Queerpedia

About Pocket Queerpedia

The Pocket Queerpedia is a resource Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education developed for activists, educators and the queer community generally, to assist in teaching on queerness. Queer education can be one of the most freeing of experiences, yet resources are not always accessible, suitable for a South African context or visually appealing to young audiences. The Pocket Queerpedia is an offering to respond to this. It has been reviewed by academics, progressive organisations and queer activists. The book comes in three languages during the first phase (English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa). It is available for free download below

The Story Behind Pocket Queerpedia

Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education is an organisation dedicated to resourcing and supporting activists towards their goals of equality, freedom, dignity and better futures. The idea for this glossary was sparked by a moment in one of our offerings ‘Feminism and Freedom’ a course we hosted for young activists in 2019. While grappling with discussions on gender, sexuality and freedom, we ran into a number of difficulties. As with most of our courses, the participants in the room were quite diverse – drawn from different communities, geographic locations and organisations. What we considered basic and familiar terms in queerness, we thought all would know, left many participants lost. What we thought were commonly accepted definitions proved otherwise. In that moment, we faced a big dilemma – how do we discuss the power and importance of queer politics, when so many terms are not commonly understood? This question led us to reflect deeply on some of the questions posed by our participants. Why are some terms used in different ways by different people? Where do I begin understanding the differences between biology and gender? What are these terms in my own home language? How would I explain all this in a way my mother can understand? Are there African examples and experiences we can draw on to better understand and make cultural links?

Words have power. They can offer recognition or erase experiences. We offer this glossary to activists who wish to broaden their understanding of the world and how gender and sexuality shape it.

About the creators

The book was conceptualised, designed, and illustrated by Seth Deacon, Tshisimani’s Visual Materials Developer and Art curator, with input from the entire Tshisimani staff. Seth is a queer artist who previously taught digital arts and multimedia design, and completed an MAFA in which he focused on the depiction of violence, gender, race and class in photographs of the body in a South African context. Content editing, consultation and copy edits were done by Tshisimani’s Social Media Specialist and Content Creator, Mohammed Jameel Abdulla. Further consultations outside Tshisimani were done with queer performance artist, activist and scholar, Tandile Mbatsha; Clinton Osborne, an activist, artist and educator of the Sex Workers’ Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT); and activist and scholar Mmakatleho Sefatsa. Veteran pan-african, feminist scholar, and co-director of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Hakima Abbas, provided extensive consultation on the written content of the glossary, as well as academic feedback. The many rounds of translations were held by a team of writers, activists, educators and translators consisting of Simone Cupido, Kealeboga Ramaru, Allan Maasdorp, Chulumanco Mihlali Nkasela, Dinga Sikwebu and Akha Hamba Mchwayo Tutu.

Trans Activist, filmaker and educator Zoey Black reacts to #PocketQueerpedia

Download the book here!

English


isiXhosa


Afrikaans

Rethinking Freedom


Strategies for Winning Freedom

About

Today, activists on the left of the political spectrum are seized with the question: how to organise politically to challenge authoritarianism, inequality, climate change and many other ills that are haunting the world today? While there may be agreement on the need for social change, there are varied ideas on how to get there. Grappling with these issues requires reflection on emancipatory experiments and strategies for winning freedom that have emerged in the 21st century. Enriching these reflections are recent and ongoing struggles across the world: the 2011 revolutionary moment in the Arab world, Africa’s “third-wave protests” to municipalism in Spain. These different struggles have placed urgent questions on the table: what visions and imaginations are being constructed in the search for freedom? Will freedom be won and secured through an insurrectionary route and marking a complete break with the past? Does the gradual approach to change have a place in how we think about winning freedom today? Does the institutional or electoral path to power offer any insights to those struggling to win freedom today? Is there a need to shift from the centrality of the “national” towards a politics that centres the “local or sub-national”? In this module, participants will consider all these questions as part of a reflection on their own struggles in pursuit of freedom.

This module aims to answer these questions:

  1. What are the strategic debates that activists are engaged in today in relation to the struggle for freedom?
  2. What kinds of imaginations and visions of the future are being crafted in these struggles for freedom?
  3. Is it possible to link our analysis about the roots of oppression, our rage and resistance and our dreams for a better future into a winning combination?

Course Outline


Day 1: Introduction

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5: Wrapping up

*these times are a guide only.

Uncategorized


Kitchen Assemblies

Tshisimani programmes in partnership with the Bonteheuwel Development Forum