After serving the community for 32 years, Brian Alcock, the former project director of the Athlone District Advice Office (ADAO), has decided to hand over the baton.

Mr Alcock, who said he is long past retirement age, has been a volunteer for the organisation all these years - initially on a part-time basis, but in later years, after his retirement from his full-time job, he served the community on a full-time basis.

In 1992, Mr Alcock was one of the founding members of ADAO.

“It was during the time of the struggle (against apartheid), that we as the then ANC comrades realised that many people needed legal assistance and that many were not aware of their rights. Later, we became non-political. A lot of people faced things like illegal evictions at that time, and we fought against injustices. We wanted to serve the people and make sure justice prevails and human rights are protected. As we moved through the years, we made sure that we educated ourselves to give 100% to the people. We did many training workshops and courses and I acquired a diploma in legal studies,” Mr Alcock said.

Ironically, Mr Alcock was never interested in studying law before his involvement in the fight against apartheid.

“We just wanted to give people proper legal advice and at the same time, educate the people about their rights. In order for us to do this, we had to educate ourselves first.”

When asked about any success stories that stood out for him over the years, Mr Alcock said this would be difficult to point out.

“For us, every victory is a success story. There is not one case that was more important than the other one. Thankfully, we have had more success stories than failures. However, we could not do this on our own. We are grateful for partnerships and collaborations with various stakeholders, like the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Law Faculty, non-government organisations, such as ProBono.org, religious leaders and support from other advice offices. The ADAO is particularly grateful to Reverend Stephen Snyman from the Calvinist Protestant Church in Kewtown, who made office space available for free, during a time when the ADAO was in desperate need of office space. Three years later, the ADAO is still based there,” Mr Alcock said.

Like many other organisations, sustainability has been a challenge over the years. As international funding dried up after South Africa’s democracy, it became more difficult for the volunteers of ADAO to keep the office open.

“There were times when we disappointed the people, because of a lack of funds. We had to apologise because we could not send emails, for example. Most of the time, the office was run from our own pockets. All the volunteers used their own money. Through sheer determination, the will of God and donations, the office is still operating today.”

Mr Alcock’s health took a knock two years ago, and that is part of the reason he decided to hand over the baton, but he said he felt confident that he had left the ADAO in very capable hands.

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