Vacancies

Finance Assistant

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), based in Johannesburg, South Africa, is seeking a highly qualified Finance Assistant to support the Financial Manager to ensure effective financial controls and implementation of financial policies and procedures, managing financial resources and administrative functions.

SALC promotes and advances human rights and the rule of law in southern Africa, primarily through strategic litigation support and capacity building. SALC works in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Job Description:

You will work closely with the Finance Manager, Executive and Litigation Directors to support management of financial operations and maintaining financial records.

In particular, the Finance Assistant is responsible for:

  • Timeous and accurate capturing of financial transactions in a project accounting system including cashbook, petty cash, credit card journals, payroll journals and general journals.
  • Preparing reconciliations for balance sheet accounts as well as for project reports.
  • Maintain filing.
  • Assisting in audit preparations and during audits.
  • Preparation of payment requisitions and ensuring all supporting documents are in place before submitting for payment.
  • Assisting third party service with collating invoices for VAT returns filing.
  • Preparation of ad hoc management information.
  • Assisting with other administrative tasks as required.

Requirements:

  • A diploma in Accounting, Business or Finance;
  • Proven track record of experience in non-profit financial management with at least 2 years of progressive work experience in donor funded projects.
  • Proficiency with financial software packages: Sage Evolution
  • High proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Microsoft Excel

Interested applicants should send a letter of interest and a detailed CV to applications@salc.org.za by 06 July 2020. In the subject line of your e-mail, please insert “Application: Finance Assistant position”. Please include 3 references, one of which should be an external auditor at your current position.

FOR STUDENTS:

Due to Covid-19 concerns and measures, we can only consider internship applications to work remotely from May to September 2020.

Legal Intern

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) is looking for interns to work in our offices in Johannesburg, South Africa. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis but applicants are encouraged to get their application in as soon as possible, indicating dates of availability. Interns will work at the SALC offices under the supervision of one of SALC’s programme lawyers. Responsibilities may include legal research and writing, including international and comparative law research; factual research on specific legal cases; bluebooking and fact-checking legal filings; assisting in maintaining SALC’s website; and assisting staff in organising conferences and seminars. Please note that the position is unpaid.

Requirements

  • Interest in human rights issues;
  • Basic knowledge of international and regional human rights laws and instruments;
  • Experience working in or focusing on southern Africa preferred;
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; Portuguese or French is highly  desirable;
  • Excellent research skills including online sources;
  • Well-organised, self-motivated and reliable.

Interested applicants should send a letter of interest, a detailed CV and an unedited writing sample to Pamela Timburwa, pamelat@salc.org.za. 

Legal Extern

SALC is looking for externs – full time students who can dedicate approximately 10 hours per week to research and general assistance to SALC. Externs will work from home, with occasional meetings with SALC lawyers when necessary. This work may include legal research and writing, including international and comparative law research; and factual research on specific legal cases.

Externships are designed to give students practical experience of working in human rights litigation, without the time and financial difficulties full time internships create. Working with SALC provides students with exposure to litigation at domestic courts as well as to regional and international human rights mechanisms, and will help broaden your understanding of the strategies lawyers involved in such cases adopt. However, our externships require dedication and hard work, and we expect high standards of work from our externs.

Preferred applicants:

  • All law students who already have an undergraduate degree;
  • Interest in human rights issues;
  • Basic knowledge of international and regional human rights laws and instruments;
  • Experience working in or focusing on southern Africa preferred;
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
  • Portuguese or French is highly  desirable;
  • Excellent research skills including online sources;
  • Well-organised, self-motivated and reliable.

Interested applicants should send a letter of interest, a detailed CV, an unedited writing sample and a 2 page answer to the research question to Pamela Timburwa: pamelat@salc.org.za

Research Question: In your opinion how effective is the  individual complaints mechanism of African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights? In particular, consider the enforcement of African Commission decisions and whether the mechanisms offers effective remedies of human rights violations.