Amanda Rinquest

I have worked in the social movement and civil society sector for 11 years, I am an admitted attorney of the High Court and have just completed my LLM in Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town. I have a good working knowledge of the education, social assistance and environmental sector and governance experience, having served on two civil society boards and currently serving as the Chair of My Vote Counts. 

In 2015 I began my Articles of Clerkship at the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) - a public interest litigation firm in Khayelitsha. At EELC I was able to develop my  interests in constitutional and public interest law. From 2017 to June 2019 I headed the Eastern Cape office of membership based movement Equal Education, using activism, litigation, research and grassroots organising to fight for the realisation of the right to education. I am currently the National Education and Training Manager at Black Sash where I focus on right-education to support communities and activists, knowledge building on climate change for the paralegal sector, and the campaign for Basic Income Support.

Apart from developmental work, my other interests include sustainability, corporate social investment, and natural resources law. 

Black Sash (January 2020- current)- National Education and Training Manager

Strategic planning on basic income support, social protection floor and other campaign work.
Develop educational training plans and materials on topics related to a Social Protection Floor, Social Insurance: UIF, COIDA, RAF, Provident Funds and Social Assistance.
Develop and implement programmes to enhance human rights content, as well as training courses on constitutional rights, basic income support, debt and credit.
Support the community advice office sector including through coordinate and facilitate the annual Dullah Omar School for Paralegals
Develop Black Sash Climate Change Programme, including working on issues of food security and its relationship with climate change and basic income support.
Convene public debates and discussions to enhance thinking around poverty, unemployment and inequality and other points of intervention.

Strategic planning and management in the organisation.

Equal Education (May 2017- June 2019)- Deputy Head (May 2017-December 2017) and Head of Eastern Cape
Managing a team of approximately 9 junior staff members, including organisers and aresearcher
and between 30-40 post-school volunteers.
Leading and developing EE’s campaign strategy in the Eastern Cape, which includedconducting research, collecting data collection, mobilising, organising protest action andmeeting with provincial education officials.
Building relationships with the provincial education department, the community, schools and principals.. Building and maintaining relationships with other organisations and stakeholders, both public and private.
Overseeing the overall managing of the office including budget planning and monitoring and implementing the organisations policies and procedures.
Drafting press statements, conducting media interviews, representing the organisation in various media platforms and assisting with the development and implementation of social media campaigns.

Equal Education Law Centre- Candidate Attorney (February 2015- January 2017) and Attorney
Assisting with strategic litigation cases, these included key cases such as the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure which secured greater government accountability in theroll out of safe school infrastructure; the Michael Komape case around the death of a 5 year old who died in a pit latrine toilet; and The Grootkraal case, which involved developing legal arguments for the expropriation of a public schools on private land.
Conducting legal research in support of advocacy and litigation, as well as assisting in the drafting of research reports and comments for draft policies and legislation.
Conducting field research, lived experience information and school data collection incommunities- particularly in rural Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
Engaging in ‘Movement Lawyering’- which included working closely with EEEL’s primaryinstitutional client, social movement Equal Education.

Bachelor of Social Science- 2009, University of Cape Town
Bachelor of Laws- 2011, University of Cape Town

Master of Law -2022, University of Cape Town. An LLM by coursework including Principles of Environmental Law, Pollution Law, Land Use Planning Law, and Natural Resources Law.