Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) is looking for a Communications Coordinator to join our team. The successful candidate will support the Head of Communications and will work with various teams to deliver both internal and external communications campaigns in support of the CER’s strategic outcomes.  

Location

Cape Town or Johannesburg

Qualifications, skills and experience

• Relevant studies, degree or qualification in journalism, communications, or similar media studies.   
• A minimum of 3 years’ experience in a similar role. Experience in the social justice sector will be an advantage. 
• Proficient with: various MS Office applications; virtual meeting and webinar applications; various creative suites; videomaking and editing; design applications; photography; publishing software (WordPress), etc.  

• Excellent English written and verbal skills. The ability to speak other South African languages will be an advantage.  
• Effective networking skills and a strong capability to build support among a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.  
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work independently and collaboratively with teams. 
• Attention to detail and commitment to high-quality support and service.  
• A commitment to diversity, inclusion, and transformation in all aspects of the work.   
• A passion for social and environmental justice, and a sensitivity to social issues and to the needs of communities impacted by environmental degradation and injustice.  
• Availability to travel.   

Key responsibilities

• Communications team support – Support the Head of Communication by coordinating the Comms team’s various meetings and day-to-day commitments to ensure that various deliverables and activities are on schedule. 
• Stakeholder engagements – Collaborate, coordinate and support CER programmes, staff members and stakeholders to align the planning and implementation of CER’s communication strategy and help drive activities to ensure that outcomes are achieved. 

• Events planning – Coordinate the planning, preparation and implementation of various organisational and communication events and activities.   
• Reporting, monitoring, and evaluation – Support the production of periodic status reports of CER’s various communication outcomes. 
• Administration – Attending to the different administration needs of the team such as checking the accuracy of invoices, organising travel arrangements, engaging with service providers etc.  
• Media library – Support the maintenance and management of the CER media library, archives, and relevant databases.  
• Media engagements – Provide support to staff to ensure their successful participation at various media-related commitments, coordinate responses to various media enquiries. 

• Communications outputs – Assist in the development and dissemination of communication outputs.  

Salary

The salary range for the position is between R262 753 to R355 490 (total cost-to-company), the salary package includes a medical aid subsidy. The salary offered will be dependent on factors that may include the qualifications, level of expertise and experience of the successful candidate. All new staff members join our medical aid group scheme with Discovery Health.   

Working for the CER

The Centre for Environmental Rights is a non-profit environmental rights legal organisation that helps communities defend their right to a healthy environment. We do this by advocating and litigating for environmental justice.  

As South Africa’s largest public interest environmental law organisation, we leverage our expertise and commitment to fight for environmental justice and advance the right to a healthy environment for all. We take on the big environmental fights – high-stakes cases where we can work with local communities, have an enduring impact, and set powerful precedents for other cases, and help improve policy and practice across the country.  

Winning the legal case is only part of the battle. CER’s litigation work is strengthened by local empowerment, dedicated policy and advocacy work, and strategic communications. In all of our work, we work closely with partners in affected communities, with other civil society organisations in the environmental and social justice sector, and with other public interest law organisations.  

We work across the following core themes: Mining, Pollution and Climate Change, and Corporate Accountability and Transparency. We have our main office in Observatory, Cape Town, with a smaller office in Johannesburg. Staff who join our Johannesburg office are required to travel to our Cape Town office on a regularly.