By Nomfundo Jele
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) would like to notify legal practitioners that its Conveyancing Task Team is meeting regularly and had its first meeting for 2020 on 16 January.
The Task Team was established by the LSSA’s House of Constituents in 2019 to review the concerns on the poor pass rate for the conveyancing admission examination. The LSSA is grateful that the Legal Practice Council (LPC) approved most of its recommendations for various interventions regarding the examination, which will be put in place in 2020.
During its meeting, the Task Team reviewed the overall provisional results of the first conveyancing examination, held in September 2019, after its recommendations. The results did not show great improvement in most provinces and the Task Team expects that the marks will be higher this year as the interventions take effect.
The Conveyancing Task Team and the Law Society of South Africa’s (LSSA’s) professional affairs staff at the Task Team’s first meeting of 2020. From left: Task Team member, Sinawo Makangela; LSSA Professional Affairs Manager, Lizette Burger; Senior Manager: Legal Education and Development, Ogilvie Ramoshaba; LSSA Senior Legal Officer, Ricardo Wyngaard; LSSA Committee Secretary, Selinah Sekano; Task Team member, Dave Bennett; and Task Team member and LSSA Vice-President, Mabaeng Denise Lenyai.
In August 2019, the LSSA introduced a pilot mentorship programme in Mthatha and Polokwane. The Task Team noted that the current mentees in the pilot programme did not write the September 2019 examination and several had indicated that they would only be writing the examination at the August 2020 sitting. The Task Team is optimistic that the mentorship programme will bear fruit as it is rolled out in other cities and towns.
The LSSA calls on all conveyancers to support the LSSA Mentorship Programme. It is up to the existing conveyancers to see that there is effective skills transfer in the profession. It is incumbent on each conveyancer in South Africa to make sure that the programme is a success.
The LSSA would like to make legal practitioners aware that those who are registering for the upcoming Legal Education and Development (LEAD) Conveyancing Course will not have completed the course in time for the first sitting of the conveyancing examination in February. The reason is that the LPC has brought forward the first examination sitting from April to February, while the LEAD course is scheduled to run from 1 February to 4 April.
Practitioners writing the conveyancing examination in February are urged to enrol for the LEAD three-day exam preparatory course, as per the schedule below:
| City | Dates in 2020 | Times |
| Cape Town | 17, 18 and 20 February | 17:30 – 21:00 |
| Durban | 17, 18 and 20 February | 17:30 – 21:00 |
| Pretoria | 13, 14, 15 February | 15:00 – 18:00 |
Cost: R 500
Contact Molalatladi Modiba at (012) 441 4655 or e-mail: molalatladi@LSSALEAD.org.za.
The possibility of extending the three-day course to other areas is being investigated.
Read more about the Conveyancing Task Team here.
Nomfundo Jele, Acting Communications Manager, Law Society of South Africa, nomfundom@lssa.org.za
