Ten years of strengthening community justice: The Dullah Omar School for Paralegalism

In the run-up to the 2026 Local Government Elections, the Dullah Omar School for Paralegalism held its 10th annual gathering – a milestone for a programme that has become a cornerstone of South Africa’s community-based paralegal sector. Over four days, paralegals from nine provinces came together to learn, share, and plan how to support communities, strengthen democracy, and enable informed, peaceful participation in public life.

The School is a project of Black Sash,  the Social Change Assistance Trust (SCAT), North-West University Law Clinic and Community Advice Offices South Africa (CAOSA). Since 2015, it has brought together community-based paralegals from across the country to strengthen legal literacy, organisational capacity, and advocacy skills, while supporting the community advice offices they run. 

It has also become one of the few spaces where paralegals, who often work in isolation throughout the year, can meet, compare experiences, and build the relationships and networks that sustain their work.

Why local government matters

This year’s focus was local government, the sphere of government closest to people’s daily lives. Many municipalities are struggling to deliver basic services, leading to frustration, protest, and declining trust in public institutions. With local elections approaching, the need for informed, supported, and peaceful community participation has never been greater.

Across South Africa, communities continue to face poverty, unemployment, inadequate services, weak local governance, and limited access to support. People struggle to secure water, sanitation, housing, electricity, and other essentials. When government fails to respond clearly or consistently, trust in democracy can erode.

In communities like Elsies River, this reality plays out every day, and it is community advice offices, often operating from small offices with limited resources, that help people navigate it. Community advice offices are often the first point of contact for people seeking help.

For Altino Pypers, who works at the Elsies River Community Advice Office and attended the paralegal school this year, this work is broad and deeply rooted in community life.

“We are on the front lines when it comes to community issues,” he said. “Apart from paralegal work, we run different programmes like GBV support, food schemes, and we coordinate SASSA services in the community, to help people avoid long queues overnight.”

Community-based paralegals provide legal information, social support, and practical guidance and help communities understand their rights, access services, resolve disputes, and engage with government in organised and peaceful ways.

“We are quite busy,” said Pypers. “Nothing is perfect, but we are getting the things done that need to get done.”

Learning that lead to action

The four-day programme equipped paralegals with practical tools for their daily work, and for many participants, the learning has already sparked concrete action. One session that stood out for Pypers focused on local government legislation and the responsibilities of councillors and communities.

“There were things I didn’t know. For example, once you are a ward councillor, you must also form a ward committee. That committee is made up of individuals and organisations who come together regularly. I learned that it’s the ward committee that keeps the councillor’s feet to the fire by reminding them of their duties, budgets and responsibilities. I told my team: as soon as this local government election is done, we as an organisation must also be on that ward committee.”

This is the ripple effect the paralegal school aims to create: paralegals leave not only with new knowledge, but with plans to use it.

Since returning from the School, Pypers said he has been sharing what he learned through everyday interactions at the advice office.

“Every morning there is a queue at the office. Once people are seated, I remind them about the local government elections and the importance of their vote. I tell them it is our duty to hold people accountable.”

For Pypers, who lives with a physical disability, another aspect of the School that stood out for him was the organisers’ attention to accessibility.

“From traveling from my home till the airport, the flight from the airport on the other side to the hotel, everything was done so meticulously. They bent over backwards really,” he said. “If I could give them a rating, it would be 10 out of five, to be quite honest, because they were just exceptional.”

These practical arrangements ensured that participants from across South Africa, with different experiences and needs, could participate fully in the programme.

Strengthening democracy, one community at a time

By the end of the four days, participants were better equipped to support communities, monitor service delivery, promote accountability, and encourage peaceful participation in local democracy.

For Pypers, this also means helping people think beyond encouraging them to show up and vote.

When people come into the Elsies River Community Advice Office, he encourages them to start by looking at their own community and asking a simple question: Look around you and think about what is the outcome that you want as a community?

“We encourage people to look beyond what is being promised during an election campaign, but at what candidates and political parties stand for, what they have done before, and whether their priorities speak to the future people want for their communities.”

“You don’t need to go through their whole document,” he said of political party manifestos. “Take out the important things and see: is this what you want for your community?” This is the ripple effect that the Dullah Omar School aims for: that paralegals will learn something new, take it back to their advice offices, share it with the people accessing their services, and through this empower communities to know more about their rights, their community and their role in public life.

To hear more from community-based paralegals about their everyday work, watch the Paralegal Diaries video series -a collaboration between Black Sash, Social Change Assistance Trust, Legal Fundi, the Education and Training Unit and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. Watch the first episode here.

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