Charter in Gauteng
9 March 2007
Following eight successful workshops across the country, the last Provincial
Consultative Workshop will be held at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on
Friday, 9 March 2007.
The need for the development of a Legal Services Charter became crucial
following the apartheid legacy which left all sectors in the country
characterised by gross inequalities. The legal services sector and the legal
profession are typified by inaccessible and unequal distribution of services
and the need for transformation of the judicial system, legal profession and
legal services sector is eminent.
The process started off in December 2004 with a meeting, spearheaded by the
Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, which was held with all
stakeholders within the legal services sector and the legal profession. The aim
of the meeting was to identify issues and challenges faced by the legal
services sector and legal profession. Subsequently, a Reference Group was
established to develop a conceptual legal framework for the Charter. The latter
was produced in December 2005. The Minister then appointed a Steering Committee
in January 2006, who in turn appointed a Drafting Committee, which commenced
the process of drafting the Legal Services Charter. The Draft Charter was then
released for the commencement of the public consultative process.
During August 2006, a National Indaba was held in Sandton to debate and
discuss the contents of the Charter. Of fundamental importance were the
economic empowerment of black legal practitioners and the issue of skills
development in order to compete on an equal footing with white practitioners.
Consultative workshops in the provinces followed the National Indaba. The
workshops, through intense and robust debates, raised important issues such as
increased targets as contained in the Charter, better measures to transfer
skills to women and black practitioners, measures to accelerate access to the
judiciary for the latter and access to finance for historically advanced
individuals. The last provincial workshop in Gauteng will further stimulate
debate, providing valuable inputs for consideration, building towards the
finalisation of the second Draft Charter.
Following the consultative workshops, a Focus Working Group (FWG) will
continue the consultative approach. The mandate of the FWG is to consider the
inputs, comments and submissions made by various stakeholders during the
consultative process and further to produce the second Draft Charter. Once it
has been produced, the Minister may with the advise of the SC, seek Cabinet
approval to publish the Charter for public comments or engage the Department of
Trade and Industry to gazette the Charter in terms of Section 12 of the BEE
Act.
Enquiries:
Phumla Mthala
Tel: 012 357 8234
Fax: 012 315 1678
Cell: 079 528 4661
E-mail: pmthala@justice.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
9 March 2007
Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (http://www.doj.gov.za)
