Andries Maarman is a Community Environmental Legal Officer (CELO) representing Natural Justice’s Southern Africa hub along the West Coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Born and raised in Graafwater, Andries attended the local schools in the area before he started his activism journey as a Community Worker, mostly advocating for a moratorium on farm evictions and for fair labour practices.
Andries had previously worked at the Sandveld Local Development Agency (SALDA) as a facilitator on the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. In his earlier career, he worked as an Administrator for the Black Association of the Agricultural Sector, and studied Paralegalism and Community Development Work, whereafter he was appointed Financial Administrator and later as a Community Paralegal.
In his role at Natural Justice, Andries will be providing support to small-scale fishers of the West Coast, Guriqua indigenous community and the coastal community at large who rely on the ecosystem for their livelihood and who have deep associated cultural practices with the land and ocean. Andries is working under the Stream: Standing with Communities.
Coupled with his extensive knowledge of the area, and his connections to West Coast communities, Andries seeks to empower the communities he works with and to highlight the struggles they face on a daily basis in their search for a better life as an Indigenous nation.
