Chairperson of the Legal Practice Council, Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu with the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola at the launch of the Draft Legal Sector Code for public consultation in Johannesburg on 10 November 2020.
By Kgomotso Ramotsho
Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, addressed the launch of the Draft Legal Sector Code for public consultation held in Johannesburg on 10 November 2020.
On 6 November 2020 the Legal Practice Council (LPC), issued an invitation to legal practitioners to participate in consultations for the development and drafting of the Legal Sector Code, as a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) charter for the legal profession in terms of s 9 of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 (the Act). In his address Mr Lamola said that the Legal Sector Code should ensure participation of black and female legal practitioners in the mainstream of the economy, competition law, telecommunications, mining, etcetera. He pointed out that the event was a historic moment for the legal profession and added that one of the striking phenomena in South Africa (SA) is not the ability to lament the South African historical legacy of inequality and the systemic disempowerment of black people, but the ability to devise tools for transformation and fail to implement them.
Mr Lamola said that a code, charter or any policy for that matter, is in itself meaningless unless it is implemented. He added that it is with sincere hope that during the current administration everything is done to implement the many polices at the current administration’s disposal. He noted that while the Office of the State Attorney is playing its part to ensure that legal work, which comes from various government departments, is shared across a wide spectrum of legal practitioners, he said that the reality is that this obligation should not be on government alone.
Mr Lamola quoted a speech by the late liberation stalwart, Oliver Tambo, in New York in January 1987, when he was addressing a meeting of the Africa-America Institute and Foreign Policy Association. ‘In our proposition as to what South Africa should look like, we do address the question of the economy too. And our starting point is what any economy should serve – the people. The economy should be so handled that the wealth is equitably distributed. Under Apartheid and under the existing system, there is no distribution of wealth, experts have said. What there is, is abject poverty affecting millions of people in the midst of that wealth. It is a glaring injustice which must be redressed.’
Mr Lamola pointed out that the aspirations expressed by Oliver Tambo are codified in the Act, and chief among those is to –
Mr Lamola said from the government’s perspective there were several attempts made to ensure that both the legal profession and society in general, holds government accountable on briefing patterns. He added that the Office of the State Attorney publishes monthly statistics in this regard. ‘I have no doubt that the current statistics can improve as the Office of the State Attorney becomes more efficient and effective through the policies that the Solicitor General will introduce in due course. Having said that, it is evident that these interventions from the Office of the State Attorney will not be enough,’ Mr Lamola added. He pointed out that this was because the state legal work is only a small fraction of the pie, as the private sector holds the rest of the pie.
Mr Lamola noted that the draft legal code that was presented, seeks to bring the private sector to the table. He added that one of the most unfortunate things about SA’s constitutional order is that people often think that the Constitution can only be implemented by government and often it is only government institutions that are held to the ideals of transformation, which are contained in the Constitution. Mr Lamola said it must be ensured, through this legal code, that s 217 of the Constitution is entrenched across the board. ‘We must ensure that, the procurement of legal services, is done in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective’.
Mr Lamola pointed out that President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for ‘a new social compact among all role players business, labour, community and government to restructure the economy and achieve growth’. He added that he is personally looking forward to seeing the final legal code coming into fruition. Mr Lamola said that he has no doubt that a path towards transformation was set, which will result in a catalytic and systemic shift in the legal profession as it is known. ‘We cannot falter, we must not let this task fall by the wayside’, Mr Lamola added.
Mr Lamola wished the LPC well during the consultation process, which will be taking place across the country. The Chairperson of the LPC, Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu said: ‘The Legal Practice Council is committed to working with all stakeholders, including practitioners and users of legal services, we urge them to participate in the provincial consultations. We want to encourage all legal practitioners, government departments and entities, private sector corporate legal practitioners, academia and Law Clinics to accept our invitation and participate in the consultations’.
The consultation for the development and drafting of the Legal Sector Code, started in Gauteng on 10 November 2020. Physical meetings in other areas will include –
Kgomotso Ramotsho Cert Journ (Boston) Cert Photography (Vega) is the news reporter at De Rebus.
