About the Black Sash
The Black Sash is an independent, non-governmental Human Rights organisation that has worked tirelessly for justice and equality in South Africa for nearly 55 years.
Our Vision is making human rights real.
Since the end of Apartheid in 1994, the Black Sash has focussed on the promotion and protection of our hard-won freedoms, particularly in the areas of social and economic rights.
Our Mission is to work toward a South Africa in which ...
- Human Rights are recognised in law and respected in practice;
- The government is accountable to ALL its people and attends to their basic needs in a participatory and dignified manner;
- The Constitution is upheld by all;
- Social and economic justice is recognised as fundamentally important;
- And ALL members of society take responsibility for reducing inequality and extreme poverty.
Our Aim is to enable ALL ..
.. with an emphasis on women and children .. to recognise and exercise their human rights, particularly their social and economic rights. And to create a society that has effective laws and delivery systems, including comprehensive social protection for the most vulnerable.
The Black Sash has seven regional offices - in Cape Town, Knysna, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg - and a national office near Parliament in Cape Town. We employ over 60 full-time professional staff.
The Black Sash provides FREE advice and paralegal support.
Over the past five years, we have assisted nearly 60 000 clients and their dependents.
The Black Sash has helped secure more than R65-million in social grants and other financial provisions that were due to them.
We have also worked to strengthen the advice office sector to enable access to justice in the rural areas of South Africa through initiating and sustaining the National Alliance for the Development of Community-based Advice Offices (NADCAO).
The Black Sash has also developed a series of Paralegal Guides and Manuals.
The Black Sash provides FREE rights education to enable vulnerable people to access their social and economic rights.
We have reached millions of people through the public media, workshops, community partnerships, our website, posters, fact sheets, DVD's and other rights education materials.
The Black Sash advocates for legislation and policy that promotes social and consumer protection for vulnerable people in South Africa.
Our advocacy is focused on improving policies, laws and implementation of systems so that they reflect the principles in the Constitution and the rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
We use a range of approaches to achieve our goals - including submissions to Parliament, promoting ideas through the print and broadcast media, convening public and special interest meetings, holding marches and pickets to raise the issue in public, educating people about their rights and supporting communities or those affected to mobilise, organise and speak for themselves.
