Oral history interview with Geoffrey Budlender, 1999

Biographical Note

Lawyer

Scope and Contents

Establishment of Legal Resource Centre [LRC]: support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation; shaping of LRC's purpose: to protect people, create change through the law, provide legal aid for blacks; tension between strategic policy work and daily service work; oppressive rule and apartheid in South Africa: growing resistance in mid-1980s and increasingly lawless government retaliation; LRC's legal opposition of the government, play on government's fear of creating a negative image, test court cases, difficulty with bureaucracy and enforcing favorable judgments, dependence on judge's view; test case examples: pass laws, Group Areas Act; work with Centre for Applied Legal Studies; litigation regarding forced removals in Dreifontein community, denationalization, exclusion of women from the election of the KwaNdebele Legislative Assembly; protection of blacks against harassment and threats; impact of LRC: legal work enabling community unification and resistance, making a difference in daily lives, education and training for individuals in future judiciary, governmental, and other positions, promotion of law as an instrument for justice; position in new South African government, Director General of the Department of Land Affairs

Subjects

• Apartheid--Law and legislation--South Africa.
• Blacks--Legal status, laws, etc.--South Africa.
• Budlender, Geoffrey, 1949---Interviews.
• Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Interviews.
• Lawyers--South Africa--Interviews.
• Legal Resources Centre (South Africa)
• Morris, Len, interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• South Africa.--Group Areas Act.

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