As South Africa commemorates Heritage Month under the theme "Celebrating Our Living Heritage: Strengthening the Ties That Bind Us", we are reminded that our collective identity extends beyond cultural practices, traditions, and languages. As a constitutional democracy, our heritage is also defined by the foundational democratic values of human dignity, equality, and freedom. The preamble to South Africa's Constitution explicitly sets our collective national mandate as establishing a society based on these democratic values, as well as social justice and fundamental human rights.

Social justice is a value system, rooted in Ubuntu, that enjoins socially responsible individuals or organisations to act toward positive societal transformation by ensuring that every person attains basic human entitlements including, at least: dignity, freedom, equality and justice. Human rights, as encapsulated in the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, are expressions of the primary legal entitlements which members of South Africa's society may enjoy or benefit from.

Yet a right written into law means little to someone who does not know it exists, cannot afford legal advice, or cannot reach the services that might help them enforce it.

Access to justice is therefore about more than what happens in a courtroom. It begins with understanding one’s rights. It depends on access to advice and representation. And it requires laws and public institutions that serve the people whose rights they are meant to protect.

One barrier to accessing justice is information. People may not know what the law says, what rights they have or whether a problem they face has a legal remedy. Public legal education, community workshops and accessible information can help people recognise when their rights may have been affected and where to seek assistance.

Another barrier is practical. For many people, the cost of travel and legal services can put help out of reach. Bringing legal support into underserved communities can make a difference. Werksmans’ law clinic in Diepsloot is one example of an effort to make legal advice available closer to the people who need it. Werksmans also staffs law clinics for organisations such as ProBono.Org.

Some barriers require action beyond an individual case. When proposed laws or policies may undermine constitutional rights or the public interest, civil society organisations can raise concerns through submissions to Parliament. Legal support can help them raise legal shortcomings in those proposals with Parliament.

There are also circumstances in which advice alone is insufficient. Individuals, communities and civil society organisations may need representation in court (or other legal forums) to challenge an infringement of their rights or seek a remedy. Pro bono representation can give people a means to pursue a case they might otherwise be unable to bring.

These forms of support do not, on their own, resolve the wider obstacles to justice. But they show why access must be considered at every stage, from knowing that a right exists, to obtaining advice, to being able to enforce it.

Ubuntu asks us to recognise our responsibilities to one another. During Heritage Month, that principle offers a practical question: can people across South Africa make use of the rights our Constitution promises them? Strengthening access to justice is one way to make our shared constitutional heritage meaningful in everyday life.

Written by Dakalo Singo, Director and Head of the Pro Bono practice at Werksmans Attorneys