The Public Interest Law Gathering (PILG) is an annual civil society convening of people and organisations who use law as a tool to advance social justice in South Africa.
Started in 2011, PILG is an annual event which brings together public interest law practitioners, NGO researchers, community activists, law students, academics and donors. In 2021, the 10th iteration of PILG was held on 13 and 14 October (PILG was paused in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic). While it takes place every year, PILG forms part of continuing conversations within the public interest law sector. These conversations traverse issues such as the critical, cross-cutting social justice challenges of the time, the impact of public interest legal work, the strategies and methodologies that the public interest law sector uses, what different movements, campaigns, cases and organisations might learn from one another, and what future collaboration could look like.
LARC hosted a panel entitled, “Rights and accountability in customary law: Developments backward and forward for rural communities.” The panel consisted of Monica de Souza Louw (ARC Deputy Director and Governance Lead Researcher), Ayesha Motala (LARC Researcher), Thiyane Duda (LARC Researcher), Wilmien Wicomb (Legal Resources Centre) and Nokwanda Sihlali (LARC Researcher).