Media alert: Equal Education and the Centre for Law and Society host the second annual Yoliswa Dwane public lecture on Friday 1 March at the University of Cape Town

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5 February 2024

Media alert: Equal Education and the Centre for Law and Society host the second annual Yoliswa Dwane public lecture on Friday 1 March at the University of Cape Town

Equal Education (EE) together with the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Law and Society (CLS) will host the second annual Yoliswa Dwane public lecture at the University of Cape Town on Friday, 1 March.  The lecture is held in memory of EE’s co-founder, Yoliswa Dwane. 

The public lecture will be delivered by Fatima Hassan, the Director of the Health Justice Initiative (HJI), on the theme ‘The Local and Global: Connecting struggles for Justice and Equality’. 

This lecture will pay tribute to the work and contribution of EE’s late co-founder Yoliswa Dwane to education justice in South Africa. Yoliswa sadly passed away on 21 October 2022. 

She was born in the Eastern Cape, in Dimbaza, and went to school there, later moving to Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. She graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2007 with a degree in film and media studies and a postgraduate LLB. She dedicated her life to advancing social justice as a community activist.

She led EE as the Chairperson of our National Council (board) from 2012 to 2018, and was also the head of EE’s Policy, Communications and Research Department from 2008 to 2016. Over this time, EE’s wide-ranging impact included: getting the government to adopt the landmark Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure; securing safe and reliable transport for thousands of learners in KwaZulu-Natal; and expanding EE’s work and membership across five provinces. Yoliswa was key to the formation of the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), and was on its board from 2011 to 2019. EE and EELC continue her work toward equity and justice in South Africa. 

Read more about her life here

Fatima Hassan is a human rights lawyer and social justice activist and the founder of the HJI. She is the recipient of the 2022 Calgary Peace Prize and is a 2023 Echoing Green Fellow.

She has dedicated her professional life to defending and promoting human rights in South Africa, especially in the field of HIV/AIDS. She has worked as a Ministerial Advisor, in philanthropy as well as the not-for-profit sector. She has served on several NFP boards and is the recipient of several awards, and often writes for local and international media publications. She is currently a board member of Global Witness and serves on the Advisory Group for Resolve to Save Lives.

For those who cannot attend the lecture in person, there will be a livestream via the Equal Education Facebook page.

Topic: The Local and Global: Connecting Struggles for Justice and Equality

Date: Friday 1 March 2024

Time: 2:30pm 

Venue: Kramer Law School, Middle campus, University of Cape Town

RSVP to Jay-Dee Booysen at  jay-dee@equaleducation.org.za by Wednesday 14 February.