Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

Jonty Cogger

Attorney

Jonty is a public interest attorney working at the intersection of climate justice, land rights, and systemic inequality. He recently joined the Centre for Environmental Rights, where his work focuses on using legal strategies to challenge pollution and climate change by holding state and corporate actors accountable for environmental harm.

He holds a PhD in Public Law from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and lectures Planning Law at UCT’s School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics.

Previously, Jonty worked at Ndifuna Ukwazi, where he used constitutional property law and human rights litigation to expand access to affordable housing and dismantle apartheid spatial planning in Cape Town. From securing land and housing for working-class communities to challenging the criminalisation of homelessness, his work continues to centre around those most affected by inequality, pushing for transformative change in how land, the environment, and justice are imagined and governed.