Cape Bar to follow in transformation steps of Joburg counterpart

ADVOCATES for Transformation in the Western Cape are to meet in the next few days to discuss whether they will follow in the footsteps of the Joburg Bar, which adopted a no-nonsense rule to transform the legal fraternity and ensure the inclusion of black practitioners.

Regional chairman Greg Papier said yesterday that the Joburg Bar, South Africa’s largest society of advocates, had set an example for other divisions.

“This is the only way we are going to get real transformation,” he said, adding that many black practitioners were in dire financial straits because skewed briefing patterns left them without work.

As a result, many could not afford to pay their rent for chambers or floor dues for staff, receptionists, coffee and stationery.

Changing attitudes would change briefing patterns, and equip black practitioners with the necessary skills.

In addition, if black lawyers were not skilled in different areas of the law, there wouldn’t be many good black candidates for judicial appointment, Papier warned.

The Cape Bar Council did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

At it’s AGM on Thursday, the Joburg Bar adopted a new rule which puts its members at risk of disciplinary action with harsh sanctions if black practitioners are not briefed in certain matters.

More than 90 percent of those at the annual meeting supported the adoption of the rule, which makes it a disciplinary offence for lead counsel to remain on brief in cases involving a team of three or more advocates, where none is black.

The new rule will make all- white male legal teams a thing of the past. Advocates were also encouraged to give black women special preference.

Lead advocates who transgress the rule will be charged with unprofessional conduct and face suspension. Removal from the roll of advocates could also be imposed in cases involving repeat offenders.

Commenting on the measures adopted, Joburg Bar Council chairman Dali Mpofu SC said the council had been trying moral persuasion for the past 20 years, without success. It was therefore necessary to take the issue further.

“In its recent statement, which condemned racism in the justice sector and generally, the Bar Council identified a number of roleplayers who should shoulder and share the blame for the lack of progress in redressing the injustices of the past in the justice sector.

“These included the profession itself, the large and mainly white attorneys’ firms, state-owned enterprises and the government.”

Mpofu said the legal profession was no exception to the process of transformation that South African society was in. It should be leading the way in “promoting and fulfilling the ideals contained in the transformative constitution of South Africa, and in healing the divisions of our ugly past”.

In his keynote address during the annual meeting of the Cape Law Society in Kimberley yesterday, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said there was a need to further amend the State Attorney Act to give a solicitor- general sufficient authority to champion the transformation of the state attorney’s office.

He said he had asked the Justice Department to prepare a policy and comprehensive plan for its implementation, to be discussed at a colloquium.

Dali Mpofu.