Justice and Constitutional Development, at the Annual General Meeting of the
Gauteng Law Council
16 September 2006
Programme Director
Chairperson of the Gauteng Law Council, Ms Mphahlele
Distinguished guests
Members of the Council
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for the kind introduction Ms Mphahlele. It is a pleasure and an
honour to address you this morning. I want to thank the Law Council for this
kind invitation to join you here today on this important day on the Law
Councilâs annual calendar. I also want to thank you on behalf of Minister
Mabandla that so many of you, stakeholders in the legal profession, responded
positively to our invitation to play an active role in the process of
developing a Legal Services Charter. The response from all the stakeholders and
the manner in which the draft charter was received and engaged with were
pleasantly overwhelming. The Indaba made significant progress with the
development of a charter for the legal services sector and the consensus was
that the charter is overdue.
Ladies and gentlemen
The keen embrace of the process of developing a charter for the legal
services sector is recognition that while encouraging strides have been made in
transforming the legal services sector, the extent to which the majority of the
citizens participate meaningfully in our legal sector still remains far too
limited. As government, particularly, the Department of Justice and
Constitutional Development, we firmly believe that a systemically transformed,
strong, vibrant, economically sustainable and independent legal profession is a
fundamental component of our respected democracy. Substantive transformation
therefore means more than merely admitting more black and women legal
practitioners.
Clearly, merely opening the doors for all the people of this country to the
existing system is not sufficient. At the Indaba there was consensus that the
legal services sector requires an innovative and comprehensive plan to ensure
that the legal profession is completely restructured. To support that
innovative and comprehensive plan, we need to change the nature of legal
practice to allow many young graduates, especially black women to enter and
stay in the field. We therefore need the law societies to adopt strategies to
make their institutions more welcoming to new practitioners and to encourage
those who have entered the profession to stay.
It is our belief that, as in a number of other sectors of our society, it is
necessary to introduce a coherent and focused strategy for transformation and
broad-based black economic empowerment charter in this sector. This, in my
mind, is therefore a necessary and noble cause worthy of our full
participation. As we deliberate about the draft charter, perhaps we need to pay
attention to an advice by the late former Chief Justice Ismael Mohamed who
remarked observed that: "This pervasive and continuing legacy of racial
inequality is potentially capable of seriously impairing the fulfilment of our
vision to build a single and united South Africa which is morally just,
politically stable and economically vigorous. It is a legacy which therefore
needs urgently to be addressed and reversed.
I therefore firmly believe that, as in a number of other sectors of our
society, it is necessary to introduce a coherent and focused strategy for
broad-based black economic empowerment charter in this sector in order to
reverse the stubborn legacy of inequality. This Indaba provided us with an
opportunity to engage, understand and contribute to equity and empowerment
means in the context of the legal sector. The follow-up provincial visits by
members of the steering committee are intended to ensure that the practitioners
who could not attend the Indaba have another change to interact with the draft
charter so that at the end of the process, we have a Charter that is a product
of inputs by the majority of practitioners and other stakeholders.
We therefore hope that the provincial workshops will provide all of us with
valuable insight into issues and perspectives from the various role players
that will be impacted upon by the development of such a legal services charter.
Some of the resolutions of the Indaba were that written inputs should be made
to enhance the draft Legal Services Charter and that bilateral and workshops
should be considered between the Ministry and key stakeholders within the legal
profession and the legal services sector.
The Legal Services Charter speaks to the need to focus on historically
disadvantaged individuals and previously marginalised groups and communities in
order to free their potential so that they can participate and contribute to
the building of a nation on the move to prosperity. In a nutshell, the purpose
of the charter is to facilitate transformation of the legal profession to
ensure greater access to justice for all and to develop strategies for the
creation of socio-economic opportunities that will lead to a better life for
all the citizens of this country.
Naturally, the legal profession and the legal services sector should be in
the forefront of this particular renaissance. Being at the forefront means it
is our out duty, all of us, to ignite a vigorous campaign to lure back women,
especially black women, into the legal profession. It is quite clear that the
majority of the female graduates seem to leave the profession in
disillusionment. The situation seems to be exacerbated by established briefing
patterns and networks of legal practitioners that mostly exclude black and
female legal practitioners.
I must admit that government departments and parastatals are also not
without blame in these un-empowering briefing patterns and networks.
Consequently many black and women legal practitioners are leaving the sector to
the detriment of us all. The Department of Justice and Constitutional
Development, primarily and government in general, are already working hard to
overhaul the patterns of systematic inequality that I have already referred to.
We recognise that the various tiers of government have considerable influence
that could empower black and women legal practitioners. We are therefore
utilising our briefing patterns as an empowerment tool for previously
disadvantaged legal practitioners. Preference is given to persons from
previously disadvantaged groups whenever advocates or attorneys in the private
sector are briefed.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In conclusion, from the first exploratory meeting convened by Minister
Mabandla back in December 2004, we have urged the legal practitioners to take
the lead in the transformation and the development of a charter for the sector.
This is an undertaking that we are still committed to. It is for this reason,
contrary to some claims, that we decided to embark on an exhaustive
consultative process. This process has been on-going since December 2004. From
the end of September until the middle of December, the Steering Committee,
predominantly made up of independent legal practitioners, will be visiting all
the provinces for consultative workshops on the draft charter.
The final charter, which will present to Cabinet, will therefore be a
product of an intense consultative process and dialogue with all the
stakeholders in the legal services sector. I believe that Law Societies and
Legal Practitioners' Associations, such as the Gauteng Law Council, have a key
role to play in the development of a Legal Services Charter.
We need your organisations to be more proactive in changing the plight of
the disadvantaged legal practitioners. As Minister Mabandla said at the Sandton
Indaba last month, "the Charter process should inspire us to proceed with
determination towards the transformation of the legal services sector for the
good of all our people. The process will not only enrich the transformation
process of the sector, but will be good for the whole country.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
16 September 2006
Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (http://
www.doj.gov.za)
