// Public Interest Law.
Public Interest Law Attorneys | About us | Our Legal Services | Our Practice Areas
Power Singh Inc. is a public interest law firm based in South Africa seeking to ensure public and private sector accountability and the full realisation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
Our mission is to offer legal services to underrepresented people and causes, to defend and develop the Constitution and the rule of law, and to ensure just and equitable outcomes for our clients.
Power Singh Inc. is a public interest law firm based in South Africa seeking to ensure public and private sector accountability and the full realisation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
Our mission is to offer legal services to underrepresented people and causes, to defend and develop the Constitution and the rule of law, and to ensure just and equitable outcomes for our clients.
Protecting and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms
Latest Updates
Find our latest news, briefs, case updates, and press releases.
Litigation
Dispute resolution and strategic litigation
Research
Legal opinions, policy development and law reform
Activism
Human rights activism and advocacy
Practice Areas
Learn about the our practice areas.
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Constitutional law is the body of law that governs the relationship between the three arms of the state (the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary) and the relationship between the state, the private sector, and the people.
Chapter 2 of the South African Constitution contains the Bill of Rights which provides people in South Africa with fundamental human rights and freedoms that can be enforced both against the state and private parties.
Power Singh Inc. assists clients who have been subjected to human rights violations, who seek the full realisation of their fundamental rights and freedoms, or who seek to hold public or private actors accountable.
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Administrative law, based on the constitutional right to just administrative action, is the body of law that governs the activities and decisions of state departments and organs of state, including rule making, adjudication, or the enforcement of specific regulatory agendas.
Power Singh Inc. assists clients with administrative law reviews of the decisions and conduct of state bodies to ensure that the exercise of public power is reasonable and procedurally fair.
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Public international law is the set of rules generally accepted as binding in relations among states. It serves as a framework for the practice of stable and organised international relations and the foundation of international human rights law. International law differs from domestic legal systems in that it applies to countries rather than to private citizens.
Power Singh Inc. assists clients with defending their fundamental rights and developing international law in domestic courts, as well as through organs of the African Union, the United Nations, and international courts and tribunals.
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Information and media law covers all legal issues affecting the media and the telecommunications industries. This includes the regulation of information communications technology, broadcasting, advertising, journalism, the entertainment industry, content moderation, responses to censorship, internet intermediaries, and online services.
Information and media law includes digital rights, which are defined as human rights in the digital era. This relates, in particular, to the triad of information rights – freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy – and how they are applied both on- and offline.
Power Singh Inc. assists clients with a full range of legal services relating to information and media law, and digital rights, including litigation, representations before regulatory tribunals, preparing codes of ethics, vetting, and preparing submissions on proposed laws and policies.
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Data privacy concerns the lawful handling of personal information, including the collection, dissemination, storage and ultimate deletion. This is premised on the fundamental right to privacy, as well as the need to appropriately balance that right with the public interest in the free flow of information.
Power Singh Inc. assists clients with a full range of legal services relating to privacy, data protection, and information law, including litigation, engaging with the Information Regulator, assisting the media, and preparing codes of conduct, binding corporate rules or other relevant policies and notices.
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Emergent technologies are technologies that are perceived as capable of changing, or disrupting, the status quo. They are characterised by radical novelty, relatively fast growth, coherence, prominent impact, and uncertainty.
Emergent technologies include a variety of technologies such as educational technology, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, cognitive science, psychotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
Power Singh Inc. provides a range of services to regulators, technology firms and start-ups, including legal advisory, research and policy drafting, with a view to ensuring that human rights considerations influence disruptive technology innovation.
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Every citizen has the right to free, fair and credible elections. Electoral law is the body of law that governs free, fair, and accountable democratic elections, including the use of electronic voting technologies.
Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services relating to electoral law matters and the interplay with other rights, such as media freedom, access to information, and privacy.
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The South African Constitution provides that “a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.” Child law is the body of law that protects and promotes the best interests of children and ensures additional safeguards for children, given their position as vulnerable and developing members of our communities.
Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services relating to child law matters, including the right to education for all children, child care and protection, and children’s rights to social services and well-being.
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Every person has the right to equality and the equal protection and benefit of the law, which, in the South African context, must be understood in the light of our country’s history of apartheid, discrimination, inequality and poverty. Equally, the South African Constitution seeks to empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all people to ensure that everyone’s dignity is respected and that no one is left behind.
Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services relating to equality and inclusion law matters, such as litigation in South Africa’s equality courts, claims of unfair discrimination, policy preparation and the vindication of socio-economic rights in order to promote inclusion.
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International movements such as #MeToo are shining a light on the levels of sexual and gender-based violence and harassment prevalent in our communities. Women, children and sexual and gender minorities in South Africa are exposed to violence and face multiple challenges and affronts to their safety and dignity.
In line with the recent findings of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, there is an urgent need for the development and implementation of sound and robust legal principles that advance the fight against sexual and gender-based violence in order to safeguard the constitutional values of equality, human dignity and safety and security.
Power Singh Inc. assists survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and harassment with a range of legal services, which include violence prevention, the right to a remedy, integrated responses to sexual violence and policy preparation and development.
Power Singh Inc. does not assist with criminal trials or criminal defence in sexual violence matters.
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The South African Constitution provides that “everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing” and the right “to have the environment protected, for the benefit of future generations”. This includes measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation, promote conservation and secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources.
Power Singh Inc. provides a full range of legal services relating to environmental law matters, including litigation in relation to access to water and clean air, development planning and environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and policy development in the midst of the climate crisis.
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Legal protections for refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants find reference in South Africa’s Constitution and the Refugees Act and Immigration Act. This includes safeguards in relation to the right to seek asylum and protections against being forcibly returned to a country where a person has a well-founded fear of persecution.
Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services relating to refugee and immigration law matters, including applications for asylum, status determinations, appeals to the Refugee Appeal Board, judicial reviews and remedies for unlawful immigration detention.
Representing underrepresented people and causes
Legal Services
Learn about our legal services and how we can assist you.
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Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of litigation services, within its practice areas, which include:
- High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court applications and actions;
- Appeal and review proceedings in the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court;
- Representation before specialised courts, such as the equality court and the electoral court;
- Class action and test case litigation;
- Amicus curiae interventions;
- Urgent applications;
- Litigation before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and United Nations treaty bodies.
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Power Singh Inc. provides litigants and law firms in South Africa and around the African continent with litigation support services, which include:
- Preparation of legal documents;
- Legal opinions;
- Commissioned research;
- Strategic litigation advice.
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Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services in various complaints mechanisms in South Africa, which include complaints before the following regulatory bodies:
- Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa;
- Complaints and Compliance Committee of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa;
- Press Council of South Africa.
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In addition to litigation, Power Singh Inc. also offers assistance with various alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms, including:
- Arbitration;
- Dispute prevention;
- Mediation;
- Negotiation;
- Settlement conferencing.
* Power Singh Inc. Director, Michael Power, is a Conflict Dynamics Accredited Mediator.
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Power Singh Inc. offers a variety of sensitivity and court-sanctioned training programmes, including in the areas of:
- Equality and inclusion;
- Racism, sexism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination;
- Freedom of expression, hate speech and justifiable limitations.
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Power Singh Inc. offers a full range of legal services in commissions of inquiry, which include:
- Representation of interested and affected parties before commissions of inquiry;
- Investigations, fact-finding, and evidence-gathering;
- Drafting and research support to secretariats and evidence leaders.
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Power Singh Inc. provides human rights impact assessment (HRIA) services which assist with identifying, understanding, assessing and addressing the adverse effects of programmes, projects and activities on the human rights of workers, communities, consumers or other rights-holders.
Our HRIAs include:
- A gap analysis and consultative meetings;
- A review of existing policies and practices;
- Recommendations and practical next steps.
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Power Singh Inc. provides regulatory compliance in the area of data protection, which includes:
- Compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013;
- Compliance with the data protection laws of other countries outside of South Africa, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, 2016;
- Drafting of data protection policies, codes of conduct, consent clauses and notices;
- Preparation of binding corporate rules to facilitate cross-border transfers.
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Power Singh Inc. assists clients in developing the law and policy in line with the Constitution, international law, and best practices. This includes assisting clients with the following:
- Presenting written and oral submissions to parliamentary bodies on proposed legislation;
- Preparing policy documents, legislative white papers, and draft laws;
- Preparing model laws that can be used for advocacy or to assist states with domestic law reform;
- Drafting submissions to human rights treaty-body mechanisms, including state reports, shadow reports, and submissions to special rapporteurs.
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Power Singh Inc. assists clients, including the state, private parties and other lawyers, in preparing legal opinions on particular aspects of the law. Such opinions are informed by domestic frameworks and jurisprudence, international law, and an examination of foreign law from comparative jurisdictions. This includes, for instance, legal opinions on the following:
- Prospects of success in litigation;
- The constitutionality of a policy or law;
- Compliance with a particular legislative framework.
Legal opinions provided to clients are confidential and subject to legal privilege.
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Power Singh Inc. offers support to clients in both the state and the private sector in investigations and fact-finding missions, including:
- Investigations of alleged human rights abuses;
- Trial and election monitoring and observation;
- Regulatory support for forensic investigations;
- Identifying and interviewing key stakeholders for strategic and test case litigation.
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Power Singh Inc. assists clients with:
- Advocacy strategies at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and United Nations treaty bodies;
- Developing awareness campaigns to compliment strategic litigation;
- Engagements and submissions to parliamentary and regulatory bodies;
- Shareholder and consumer activism;
- Preparation, planning, and legal compliance for peaceful protests and gatherings.
Working to develop constitutional and international law
Introducing our association with ALT Advisory to develop the private-public interest law model in Africa.
Self-funding public interest projects and litigation and developing the private-public interest law model to facilitate access to justice and legal services.
Introducing our association with ALT Advisory to develop the private-public interest law model in Africa.
Self-funding public interest projects and litigation and developing the private-public interest law model to facilitate access to justice and legal services.
Promoting constitutionalism and the rule of law
Our People
Learn about the people behind Power Singh Inc.
Claire Dehosse
S'lindile Khumalo
Tim Lloyd
Christy Chitengu
Wendy Trott
Tara Davis
Jessie Rashid
Tina Power
Siphathisiwe Mncube
Michael Power
Kwazi Nwana
Contact us
+2710 822 7860
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