Advocacy Programme

Advocacy runs from the SASA offices in Cape Town and Pretoria, where clients are consulted on a one-on-one basis. SASA also engages in different forms of higher-level advocacy efforts.

The Advocacy Programme aims to support on average 2000 beneficiaries per year to find their own voice and improve conditions of living in South Africa. SASA supports beneficiaries through workshops, community events, engagement with government officials, individual consultations and in the process of translation and interpretation. SASA facilitates the community to work towards solving problems by providing information on accessing documentation, healthcare, education and legal services in South Africa.

Accompaniment to hospitals, clinics, the South African Police Service (SAPS), South African Social Service Agency (SASSA), and provincial Departments of Education.

Facilitating referrals to other NGOs such as the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town and Lawyers for Human Rights, MSF, Future Families and Jesuit Refugee Services in Pretoria.

Assistance with interpretation and translation

Assistance with online applications such as school enrolment or online documentation services.

Facilitating civic education and participation, using social media, awareness at the masjid and individual consultations.

Broadcasting local government opportunities, meetings and events to beneficiaries and sharing information on responsibilities, rights and navigating government processes and platforms.

Facilitating community dialogue forums and interactions between cultural leaders and local counsellors and government officials.

The strategic objective of SASA’s Paralegal Training Project is that “People on the move have improved access to reliable paralegal services, legal pathways and their rights resulting from SASA’s advocacy outreach in Mbombela and Rustenburg”

SASA is committed to strengthening its advocacy team’s capacity to address statelessness, particularly within national and international legal frameworks. We will achieve this by offering training to refugee leaders to strengthen safeguards that reduce the risk of statelessness and help identify stateless individuals. Concurrently, we aim to provide a protected platform for those at risk of statelessness and those who are stateless, thereby elevating awareness among both the general public and other refugee leaders.”

Design and implement anti-xenophobia campaigns across South Africa in partnership with partner organisations like the South African Refugee Led Network.

The Advocacy Programme engages in higher-level advocacy work to improve the lives of wider groups of people living in South Africa. This includes strategic litigation on matters that pertain to the Somali community and wider refugee population in South Africa. Such litigation includes:

• Somali Association of South Africa and Others v Limpopo Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism and Others (2014). This case had a country-wide impact on refugees’ and asylum-seekers’ ability to run businesses in South Africa. The court confirmed that refugees and asylum-seekers were able to apply for licences to trade in spaza and tuck-shops, and that a blanket prohibition against self-employment is unlawful. Read the judgement here.
• Somali Association of South Africa and Others v The Refugee Appeal Board and Others (2019). This case, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2021, overturned the decision of the Refugee Appeal Board to reject several Somali asylum-seeker’s applications following a rejection on their asylum claim by the Refugee Status Determination Officer. The High Court in Gauteng found the Refugee Appeal Board’s decision incorrect and, based on their reasons for fleeing Somalia, found them to fulfil the definition of a refugee. The Supreme Court upheld this. Read the High Court judgement here, and the Supreme Court judgement here.
• Somali Association for South Africa, Eastern Cape (SASA) EC and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others (2012). This case resulted in the re-opening of the Refugee Reception Office in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha). Read the judgement here.

SASA has also been involved as appellants in several litigation cases, including the case in which the Department of Home Affairs was ordered to re-open the Refugee Reception Office in Cape Town.