The Secretariat is headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Adv Tseliso Thipanyane.

B.Sc; LLB and LL.M (constitutional litigation)

B.Sc; LLB and LL.M (constitutional litigation) Advocate Tseliso Thipanyane joined the SAHRC as Deputy CEO (Operations) in June of 2005. He was later, in May 2006, appointed as the Chief Executive Officer.

Work Experience
Over the last 15 years Adv Thipanyane has had extensive work experience on human rights, democracy and good governance including the following:

• Former researcher and acting director of the Centre for Criminal Justice, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
• Former law lecturer, University of the Western Cape.
• Former Deputy CEO of the National Institution for Public Interest Law and Research
• Former head of the Research and Documentation of the South African Human Rights Commission
• Former Corporate Affairs Officer of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
• Former member of the Juvenile Justice Project Committee of the South African Law Reform Commission

Adv Thipanyane serves on the following as a board member:  

• South African Anti-Racism Forum;
• Children Institute, University of Cape Town (Advisory board); and
• Open Democracy Advice Centre

The office of the CEO provides leadership by overseeing the implementation of the SAHRC's Strategic Business Plan; establishing and maintaining a good governance framework and ensuring statutory compliance with the Constitution and other acts

The Secretariat is made up of the following operational programmes:

Legal Services Progamme (LSP)
A Human Rights Commission that does not act ruthlessly against human rights transgressors will not succeed. Every effort is made to ensure that all complaints of violations of human rights are properly investigated. The Legal Services Programme spearheads this effort.

While attempting to resolve most matters referred to it through negotiation, mediation and conciliation, the SAHRC has extensive powers in dealing with cases of human rights violations. These include search and seizure, the power to hold formal hearings and the power to litigate on behalf of complainants or in its own name. The SAHRC has also established links with other independent institutions, to which some matters are referred if these institutions are better placed to deal with them.

Education, Training and Advocacy (ETP)
Developing a national culture of human rights requires the participation and support of all South Africans. Facilitating this development is the core responsibility of the SAHRC’s Education and Training Programme. The Programme is primarily the training provider of the SAHRC and is responsible for:

• Development and delivery of courses, workshops, dialogues on human rights;
• Formal and non-formal education;
• Training of NGOs and government departments;
• Provision of Information and public awareness; and
• eLearning

Research and Documentation Programme
One of the major roles of the SAHRC is to monitor and assess the observance of human rights in South Africa and to monitor and assess the realisation of social and economic rights in the Constitution. This is the main function of the Research and Documentation Programme, which has also established the Gumede-Pitje Human Rights Library and Documentation Centre. This library acts as a documentation centre for all human rights publications.

Information and Communication Programme
In order to place the SAHRC within the South African society, it is necessary to continuously build a positive and credible image. The programme ensures that strategies regarding the creation, use and access of information and communication are developed and maintained.

The department achieves through

• proper record keeping;
• ensuring good relations with the media;
• accessible publications; 
• good access to information regime internally and externally; and
• Information and Communications Technologies. 

Parliamentary Liaison and Legislation and Treaty Body Monitoring Programme (PLLTBM)

Finance and Administration Programme
The Finance and Administration Department sees to the smooth running of the SAHRC by providing necessary support services and infrastructure. The department regulates the administrative, financial, personnel and security activities of the other business units. Its work includes:

• Setting up proper financial controls;
• Arranging for audits with the office of the Auditor-General; and
• Managing assets of the SAHRC.

OTHER

SAHRC and Democracy
In addition to its own work, the SAHRC has assisted in the creation of key legislation and policy aimed at ensuring equality and open and accountable government and establishing workable plans for delivering human rights.

Ending Discrimination, Building a winning nation
The Equality Legislation Drafting Unit (ELDU), housed at the SAHRC offices, was a joint project of the SAHRC and the Department of Justice. This unit was responsible for drafting legislation to give effect to the right to equality in the Constitution.

The National Action Plan
The World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria in 1993, adopted the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action which recommended that "each state consider the desirability of drawing up a national action plan identifying steps whereby the State would improve the protection and promotion of human rights". To ensure that this was done, the SAHRC called a National Human Rights Conference in May 1997, which mandated the SAHRC to set in motion the process leading to the adoption of the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (NAP). President Mandela officially launched the process of developing the NAP on 10 December 1997 in the presence of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The NAP was drafted on behalf of the government by the SAHRC, in consultation with government and civil society. It was then handed to Cabinet, which approved it in November 1998. On 10 December 1998 (International Human Rights Day and the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), the NAP was deposited with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ensuring Open Democracy
The Constitution requires legislation to give effect to the rights of access to information and just administrative action. To assist the drafters of this legislation, the SAHRC co-ordinated workshops and discussions with civil society and submitted representations on the legislation during the process of drafting it. This legislation aims to ensure that government performs its tasks in an open and democratic way and that members of the public are ensured the protection of these rights.

SAHRC Trust
The SAHRC Trust has been created to provide an independent funding source for SAHRC projects and to be a vehicle through which the public can support the SAHRC’s work.

The SAHRC Trust was officially launched in late 1998. While the SAHRC receives its core funding from government, the SAHRC Trust provides a mechanism for receiving funds from and reporting to donors. The SAHRC Trust ensures the independence of the SAHRC, since a total dependence on government funding may, in the long term, mitigate against the principle of autonomy of the SAHRC as set out in the Constitution and Human Rights Commission Act.