People’s Legal Centre (PLC) aims to empower community leaders and activists that are based in poor and working-class communities of South Africa. With our initial focus in townships, informal settlements and cape flats areas around Cape Town. The participants we work with are based in their communities, they are recognised as the people who make a difference in their communities through voluntary efforts. Most community-based leaders and activists lack the resources to create effective systemic change, be it economic, mobility and knowledge (emphasis).

The PLC empowers communities by providing community paralegal education, legal advice, and community outreach. PLC has trained community paralegals, facilitated access to justice workshops, and established community advice offices. These initiatives bridge the gap between low-income communities and South African legal systems, reinforcing access to justice and participatory democracy. 

PLC has three branches, People’s Law is our education department, Philippi Advice Office and our last component is our Law Clinic.

People’s Law paralegal skills course has 7 modules. Our curriculum is based on the following modules

1. Law and Power introduce basic legal concepts. We also analyse how the law can be used as a tool to effect structural changes.
2. Debt we learn about the history of debt and legal tools for debt management.
3. Community and Constitution we examine how community organisations can create their own constitutions.
4. Refugee Rights focus on national and international law that protects asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants.
5. Queer rights existing rights for queer people how they were won.
6. Labour law foundational laws of the employer-employee relationship
7. Family law, wills and estates forms of marriage, legal consequences of marriage and inheritance in the South African legal system.

PLC increases access to justice through legal empowerment.