Financial Literacy Project
The Financial Literacy Project is an annual initiative which aims to empower our surrounding communities (schools and farms) with essential financial literacy skills. The project is coordinated by one of our attorneys, Josie Parks, who was assisted by our candidate legal practitioners, Theo Opperman, Itumeleng Mashego and Stephanie O’ Reilly. The training is conducted by third year civil procedure students of the Faculty of Law and financial planning students currently enrolled at the EMS Faculty of Stellenbosch University. The training deals with issues such as the importance of a good credit score, the effects of being over-indebted, the benefits of saving, and certain rights contained in the Consumer Protection Act. This year, we conducted five sessions through which we reached approximately 800 individuals.
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We recently visited the office of the National Credit Regulator. The meeting was extremely productive and we look forward to collaborating with the NCR in various regards in future. We are pleased to have now concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the NCR to facilitate our future collaboration. Pictured: Stephan van der Merwe and Odwa Nweba.
The recent SABC1 programme, 26 April 2022, Yilungelo Lakho (“It’s Your Right”), featuring the Clinic’s Stephan van der Merwe and Odwa Nweba, focused on how false and misleading advertising puts consumers at a disadvantage.
From 11-15 December 2022, the Stellenbosch University Law Clinic joined the Faculty of Law in hosting the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) 11th Worldwide Conference in collaboration with the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education (IJCLE) and the South African University Law Clinics Association (SAULCA). The theme of the conference is “Justice Education: Building Resilience and Strong Connections in Times of Global Challenges”. Among the speakers were Prof Thuli Madonsela, Director of the Centre for Social Justice at Stellenbosch University, and renowned jurist professor David McQuoid-Mason.
The Clinic is pleased to be collaborating with international organisations Global Alliance for Legal Aid (GALA) and Advocates for International Development (A4ID) as part of their valuable project to review 34 countries’ legal frameworks related to financial consumer protection and debt relief. The project focusses on the negative consequences of debt default and analyzes options for debt discharge. This work is closely aligned with our own objectives to educate and empower our financially vulnerable community.
The Clinic’s Stephan van der Merwe has been invited to present an online guest lecture to faculty and students of Christ University in India to highlight the Clinic’s social justice and clinical legal education projects.
