Anneline Turpin

Meet Anneline, a thorough leader from South Africa who provides legal services for vulnerable and marginalized members of society together with her organization Legal Resources Center (LRC). LRC strives for a fully democratic society based on the principle of substantive equality to ensure that the principles, rights, and responsibilities enshrined in our national Constitution are respected, promoted, protected, and fulfilled. Anneline consults and trains communities and grass-root level environment civil society organizations on environmental justice and the environment legal framework within South Africa. Anneline has made already significant impact litigating in the Supreme Court of Appeal and in the interface between environmental and spatial justice, challenging environmental authorizations and municipal planning decisions.

Under the draconian South African COVID-19 lockdown, Anneline successfully brought an urgent High Court application to protect vulnerable and disadvantaged community members whose informal homes had been demolished by the Cape Town City Council, leaving them homeless at the outbreak of the pandemic.

The South Durban Basin (SDB) community is a project where Anneline’s leadership truly shines. The SDB or Kwazulu-Natal area is heavily polluted. It contains two large petrochemical refineries, a large paper mill, a motor manufacturer, a storage tank area where hazardous chemicals are stored, and pipelines carrying inflammable substances in large volumes. Anneline worked for over three years jointly with the SDB-community, by doing workshops and striving together for environmental justice. Anneline seeks to challenge the continued negative effects of apartheid-era town planning and environment discrimination on vulnerable communities and the lack of environment justice within our society.
To continue working in environmental law with success and support more vulnerable communities in the future, Anneline is studying for her Masters in Environment Law (University of Cape Town). JWHi granted her a fund to realize this goal. The master’s degree provides studies in the principles of Environment Law, Land Use Planning Law, Pollution Law, and International Environment Law, and finally, four research projects.