Adelaide Advice Office

The advice office in Adelaide or Nxuba was founded in 1984. At that time access to townships were cleverly controlled. Activists were harassed, arrested, unlawfully detained and subjected to torture. The advice office was established to provide a specific service to families and relatives of people who were victims of gross human rights violations perpetrated by the apartheid state. The organisation connected oppressed people with the outside world. Later in the 1980s up to the unbanning of political or liberation organisations, the advice office gradually transformed into a different organisation.

Given that Adelaide is geographically surrounded by agricultural and other farming activities, farm workers and their families are served by the organisation. The Adelaide Advice Office re-strategized and offered communities free paralegal services on a variety of issues and concerns (i.e. unfair dismissals, evictions, domestic violence, social grants, child maintenance, consumer rights, etc).

With limited financial resources and support from other organisations such as SCAT, Black Sash, etc, the advice office is striving to empower people through activities which seek to uplift people out of poverty. As a social justice organisation it campaigns for the delivery of quality public services such as social grants, health, safety and security, education, water and sanitation as well as housing.