The activities of the program enable ordinary people to participate to a greater degree in the benefits and protections of the country’s relatively new non-discriminatory legislation.

One way of measuring the effect of the CCJ’s services is to look at the number of people reached by the coordinators’ work, and the nature of the services they receive.

Since its foundation in 1997, the outreach program has attended to approximately 100,000 cases and reached 2.5 million people through its awareness programme, school visits, presentations and publications in the media. The line graph below shows the number of cases each year from 1998 to 2010.

In the last full year for which statistics are available, 2011, the outreach program recorded the following: 

• Staff attended to 5749 cases, of which 2050 had a successful outcome - a rate of 37%.

• 1125 of the 1287 mediations (87%) conducted in 2011 were successful. These related mainly to domestic violence and child maintenance. Success here is defined as an outcome that both parties were happy with, and which was still in place three months after the mediation. 

• Staff recovered R 501,865 for 243 clients in pensions, provident funds, grants, death benefits, child maintenance and other payments.

• 23,263 pupils attended 60 presentations given by coordinators.

• 26 community presentations were conducted, and 1242 adults attended. 
(Left) A visit to a home near Pietermaritzburg in a case of child abuse

• Coordinators conducted 292 home visits and accompanied 315 clients to service providers.

• Coordinators arranged 400 protection

 orders that were later confirmed by magistrates.                                            

(Right) Coordinator Zodwa Maramane visits a client at home in Impendle

• Finally, coordinators report that clients are now coming to the support centres for higher level rights. For example, a client who initially came for a government grant will return to ask how to start a self-help scheme.