“Democracy starts within our homes”

“Democracy starts within our homes”

Women’s Legal Centre Director, Seehaam Samaai, is giving women access to their rights

It was in the community of Bo-Kaap in Cape Town’s city bowl that Women’s Legal Centre Director, Seehaam Samaai, became the woman she is today: one who is firmly committed to ensuring that women have access to their rights. Public Sector Leaders asked Seehaam - who is also the Chairperson of the Western Cape SA Women Lawyers Association and former Director of Legal Administration at the Western Cape Regional Office of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development - about how she became one of the country’s most prominent activist lawyers and her perspective on working towards gender equality in the legal profession.

The birth of an activist lawyer

“At a young age, I saw how the law disempowered those around me and how women, in particular, were oppressed by the justice system,” says Seehaam. The experiences of the women in her community made her aware of how the courts can be used against the people it seeks to protect. Part of this is the high cost of legal representation. “Many women in my community had no choice but to accept their plight due to their economic inequities.” A first-hand experience of the plight of women, poor and working class in particular, led Seehaam to an active role in civic politics from an early age. It was through her involvement that she saw “how communities could resist oppressive laws and politics through uniform civic and political actions”. Seehaam believes NGOs and civil society have a responsibility to ensure communities’ voices are heard and that action is taken. “Democracy starts within our homes, and communities all have a collective obligation to build those structures.”

It was at home that the importance of education was ingrained in Seehaam by her parents, who believed in its power. It was this belief, and the drive to make a positive impact on communities, which led to Seehaam wanting to use the law as a conduit for change.

“I wanted to use the law to empower poor, working-class communities and women in particular to access their rights. I wanted to use the law as a vehicle for social change and to sensitise the law to the realities of women in my community and our townships.”

Seehaam subsequently completed her articles at the Legal Resources Centre, while also working for Lawyers For Human Rights as an attorney. She then joined the University of the Western Cape as a clinician and lecturer “where I used my lectures to inculcate in law students a sense of social justice through practical training.” Seehaam holds a BProc and LLM degree in Constitutional Litigation and is currently reading her BA Honours in Islamic Studies at the International Peace College of South Africa.

Now the Director of the Women’s Legal Centre, which is an African feminisit legal centre which “advances womxn’s rights and equality through strategic litigation, advocacy, education and training”, Seehaam identifies as a feminist lawyer and activist, continuing the legacy of the women who have come before her. “South Africa has a proud history of women lawyers who were at the forefront of the struggle and the advancement of women’s rights in the profession and in our communities.”

From principle to practice

Seehaam acknowledges the steps that have been taken to create an inclusive society, particularly in the professional space, but stresses that more needs to be done and that the work of the Women who marched in 1956 is far from over.

“Despite the important progression toward formal inclusion, the realisation of substantive gender parity in the legal sector has been and remains an enduring and arduous task.” Men still dominate the legal profession and structures, outnumbering women. “An exclusionary patriarchal culture, as well as related structural barriers, inhibits the entrance and retention of women, and black women in particular, in the legal profession.” But Seehaam knows what steps need to be taken to address the inequities.

Firstly, we need to put things into practice: “A move beyond paperbased commitments is needed, and accountability mechanisms are key to this. The shift from the principle to the practice of transformation is required on the part of private law firms, professional bodies such as law societies and bar councils, as well as in the public sector.”

“Legal regulatory bodies (particularly the soon-tobe established LPC) should establish monitoring and accountability instruments and processes for gender and racial transformation.”

Secondly, Seehaam says, authorities need to have an idea of what transformation looks by gathering more information. “There are gaps in the availability of reliable statistics on transformation initiatives and their impact within the profession, and on the realities facing women working within the public sector in particular.

“The Council [LPC] should, in addition to playing a monitoring role, oblige the profession to keep annual statistics on gender and race targets and trends.”

It’s fitting that such a remarkable, selfless woman is our trailblazer this Women’s Month. Her work exemplifies the courage of the women of 1956 and her message to South Africans is an important one:

“I want to celebrate the resilience of SA women who have survived the odds of an unjust system stacked against them, and they continue to endure. I ask that we celebrate each other and hold each others struggles and, as true feminists, I ask women to stand together, and continue to support one another, in the true feminist manner. Let us praise the actions of the women. Malibongwe.”