Annual General Meeting
13 October 2007
North West Premier Edna Molewa shared her views on the role the law
profession should play in South Africa's transformation, reconstruction and
development with delegates at the North West Attorneys Council Annual General
Meeting held in Rustenburg on Saturday, 13 October 2007.
"The legal profession should expose injustice, however uncomfortable this
may be to the powers that be. Some before you have done so, and thereby set a
precedent for the kinds of causes you support," Premier Molewa said.
She further mentioned the role played by lawyers such as Bram Fischer, who
had a privileged upbringing but chose to associate himself with organisations
and individuals that apartheid had deemed undesirable.
Premier Molewa also made mention of George Bizos and many others to whom
this country owe a debt of gratitude who kept the fire burning in apartheid
courts, sometime to fatal consequences.
"The challenge for you is to consistently speak truth to power, thus
ensuring that a stage is never reached in our history where these sacrosanct
provisions are undermined. What this implies is that you should be intolerant
of mediocrity in your ranks. You must make it your business that members of
this profession prepare adequately when they agree to take on cases", Premier
Molewa said.
"Your profession has come in for some serious flak lately. Judges have been
charged with various indiscretions, including failing to pay maintenance,
failing to declare potentially conflicting interests, as well as drunken
driving and defeating the ends of justice.
If the serious nature of the situation did not have disastrous consequences
for the profession as a whole, everyone would be saying comedians, cartoonists
and others like them have been handed raw material with which to come up with
new jokes, but this is no laughing matter".
She said she expected the members of the North West Attorneys Council to
root out misconduct and ill discipline within the legal profession.
Enquiries:
Cornelius Tanana Monama
Spokesperson: North West Provincial Government
Tel: 018 387 3456
Cell: 082 578 4063
E-mail: cmonama@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: North West Provincial Government
13 October 2007
