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The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) Law Clinic wishes to fill up to two vacancies for candidate attorneys (CAs). 

These vacancies will arise on or after 1 January 2026. 

The SERI Law Clinic has a first-rate human rights practice, which encompasses constitutional and administrative law, criminal defence, defamation, labour law, property law, contract law (insofar as it involves consumer protection) and actions against the police and other delictual claims. SERI concentrates its work in South Africa’s townships, informal settlements and other poor and marginalised communities. SERI’s practitioners appear regularly at all levels of the court system, up to and including the Constitutional Court. SERI has an enviable track record in obtaining and enforcing ground-breaking judgments. You can find out more about SERI on www.seri-sa.org 

SERI is authorised by the Legal Practice Council to accept and train CAs. CAs are recruited for a fixed term of two years, leading to qualification and admission as an attorney. These posts carry salaries in the region of R305 000. 00 per annum. 

The requirements for the positions are as follows - 

Essential 

• LLB Degree.
• Interest in and, some prior engagement with, human rights law or litigation.

Desirable 

• Interest in, and experience of, research and publication.
• Fluency in any of South Africa’s indigenous languages.
• Be prepared to work outside the ordinary working hours and with previously disadvantaged communities.

SERI wishes to contribute to the development of a new generation of human rights lawyers at the national and international level. Accordingly, the positions carry with them significant opportunities for travel and continuing professional training and development. 

If you are interested, please send a CV, academic transcript and covering letter to Princess Nkuna at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. In your letter, provide a detailed explanation of why you are interested in working for SERI, and what qualities and experience you would bring to the post. 

Generalised covering letters, which do not engage with SERI’s activities and purpose, will not be considered. 

The closing date for applications is Thursday, 31 July 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and will be expected to make themselves available for interview in August or September 2025. 

>> Download the advert here. 

Today, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), in partnership with the South African Informal Traders Forum, launched a new rights guide titled “Trading in Retail Markets in eThekwini: Your Rights.”

Retail market traders are a vital part of eThekwini’s informal economy, operating primarily from municipal-owned retail markets situated near high-traffic areas and transport hubs. These markets serve as key centres of local economic activity and cultural diversity and are governed by a set of regulations distinct from those that apply to street traders.

This new guide provides a comprehensive overview of the rights of retail market traders, relevant laws and policies, and the responsibilities of the municipality. It also outlines avenues for recourse in instances where traders’ rights are infringed.

The guide begins by setting out how you can become a registered informal trader operating in a retail market. It then sets out the relationship between the municipality and market traders. This is followed by a discussion on the municipality’s powers in regulating retail markets. Next, it sets out the legal steps you can take if you feel you have been treated unfairly by the municipality. The guide ends with a list of useful contacts and documents.

Developed in close consultation with market traders, the guide draws on their lived experiences and insights. It aims to raise awareness among traders and to empower them with actionable knowledge to protect their rights. It is based on a similar guide produced for street traders in eThekwini.

>> Download the full guide here. 

On 3 June 2025, SERI launched a new research report entitled “Food for Thought: Reflections on Food (In)Security. Laws, Experiences, Interventions” at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. This report aims to understand better how some of SERI’s partners and client groups have been affected by, and responded to, food insecurity and hunger. The launch of the report aimed to bring together different stakeholders, comprising communities directly affected by food insecurity who have played a significant role in providing their lived experiences for the report, experts on food insecurity and hunger, and policymakers, to officially publicise the research report and disseminate its findings.

SERI’s Executive Director, Nomzamo Zondo, set the scene for the launch and discussions that followed and reiterated the need for collaborative and multi-pronged approach to addressing the food insecurity crisis in South Africa. The launch was facilitated by SERI’s Director of Research and Advocacy, Lauren Royston. SERI’s Dr Yvonne Erasmus presented a high-level overview of the report’s findings. Following the presentation, members of SERI's partner organisations who formed part of the study provided their lived experiences and responses to food insecurity and hunger – these included the Inner City Federation (ICF), the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF), the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agriculture and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU), Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance (Izwi), and the Slovo Park Community Development Forum (SPCDF).  

Mark Heywood, who represented the Union Against Hunger, and Mafoko Malatji from the Department of Agriculture responded to the report and the inputs made by the panellists. They also shared their reflections on the way forward in the effort to alleviate hunger and food insecurity in South Africa.

• Download the report here.
• Download the executive summary here.

Media coverage of the launch:

• Naledi Sikhakhane, "Hunger crisis — rights group calls for state action as 23% of South Africans struggle to access food", Daily Maverick (3 June 2025).
• Naledi Sikhakhane, "State’s interdepartmental strategy to tackle hunger hampers South Africans’ right to food — report", Daily Maverick (9 June 2025).

On 12 June 2025, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in response to a call for public input regarding the ‘Concentration of Corporate Power in Food Systems and its Implications for the Realisation of the Right to Food’. The submission draws from SERI’s recently launched research report on food insecurity, which documents the lived experiences of some of SERI's partners affected by food insecurity and the remedies they seek.

The submission focuses on the following four questions posed in the call for comments.:

• How does the concentration of power in the hands of a relatively small number of corporations affect food sovereignty and the right to food in your country or region?
• What alternatives to corporate-controlled food systems are you promoting or supporting (e.g., agroecology, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture)?
• What barriers or threats do these alternative systems face from dominant corporate actors or state policies?
• What kind of legislation is needed in your country to limit the growing corporate concentration and power in food systems, and would allow for holding corporations accountable for human rights violations

Drawing from the literature review in our food insecurity report, SERI’s submission addresses the question of corporate power in the retail sector, the deregulation of the agricultural sector, and their effects on the realisation of the right to food. The submission explores alternatives to corporate-controlled food systems that can help alleviate food insecurity, such as land-based livelihood strategies and informal trade, and details the challenges these alternatives face. Lastly, the submission makes recommendations for legislative reform and enforcement that would strengthen the realisation of the right to food in South Africa including the following:  

• Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Enactment of Framework Legislation on the Right to Food
• Amendments to the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan (NFNSP)
• Enforcement of the National Minimum Wage

This SERI submission has been endorsed by:

• Professor Laura Pereira, Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
• Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ)
• Union Against Hunger (UAH)

Access the full submission here.