Port St Johns

Port St. Johns is a small costal town along South Africa's Wild Coast. While labeled the "Jewel of the Wild Coast" and sold to tourists as a place with "rustic authenticity'. The Port St. Johns legal Advice Centre services six of the 16 wards in the area. Through funding from Scat a bee-keeping project is underway and has created work for five women and four men. The Advice Office's biggest success has been to trace the pension benefits of 40 mineowrkers whose families now have access to this income.

The Port St Johns Advice office has proven it’s potential to serve the community and is a recognised resource in the community. It has a solid sense of the community’s development and its needs. This enables the office to rapidly analyse the needs of the community. Funders have recognised this quality and have selected the office to deliver programmes to the community, to host or oversee funded projects. Programmes are responsive to community needs although the office’s activities are limited to certain areas only because of funding constraints. The Advice Office has achieved its programmatic objectives for 2011 despite setbacks. 

Human rights education and HIV are the two focal areas of programming with ongoing case-work. Human rights education, planned as community outreach/workshops and special calendar events (16 Days of Activism) are well thought through reflecting community needs, conflicts or gaps such as wills, estates and customary law, socio-economic rights etc. Plans are specific with a timeframe but indicators will be hard to measure and will require adjustment. The HIV plans lean strongly towards gender activities particularly with regard to prevention and respond to issues in the community around gender based violence, risky behaviours and substance abuse. Care and support and access to rights for people living with HIV are also included representing a well rounded programmatic approach. These plans are also SMART and evaluation/monitoring indicators are realistic. The HIV plans are achievable with Scat's current budget while the human rights education will be covered in part by Scat funding. Plans for 2010 were achieved notwithstanding having to cope with poor weather conditions and venue changes. The LDA is receiving higher numbers of clients based on their effective work and do not have sufficient resources to cope with the demand. Labour matters, financial matters, unfair dismissals, domestic violence, child support grants and consumer rights comprise the bulk of case-work. In most instances few cases remain unsolved.

Port St. Johns Advice Office
39 Westgate Street
P.O. Box 256 PORT ST JOHNS, 5120
Tel/Fax: 047 564 8276
Contact: Nomboniso Gaya