GAUTENG High Court Judge Mandlenkosi Motha was met with severe criticism from certain quarters of the legal fraternity when he raised questions about an all-white legal team in a matter that cuts at the core of an untransformed legal sector.
Some did not take kindly to judge Motha’s questioning of the legal representation, as he instructed both legal teams to address him regarding the lack of diversity in their teams in a case challenging the Commissioner of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission which he had presided over.
His instruction related to a case about black economic scorecards, but the advocates in the matter were all white.
This move drew heavy criticism from within and outside the legal sector, with some organisations, mainly white, threatening the judge with legal action.
In fact one of the leading senior counsel in the matter refused to comply with the judge’s instructions.
This defiance should have given the Legal Practice Council (LPC) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition a hint of what was to come when they finally implement the long awaited Legal Sector Code.
At the core of the code, are the issues that Judge Motha raised regarding an untransformed legal sector. The importance of a transformed legal sector and society at large cannot be overstated.
The code correctly seeks to address the structural challenges faced by black practitioners, especially black women, as a result of historical inequalities.
It also wants to narrow the inadequate access to a sustainable flow of quality work from the private sector; discrimination by the private sector in terms of procurement of specialised work; inconsistent briefing patterns from organs of state and SOEs among others.
The good intentions of this code cannot be barely argued against, unless one is comfortable with the current status-quo, which only benefits a few.
No wonder the Basadi Ba Molao, an organisation training female lawyers, has condemned law firm Norton Rose Fulbright for its challenge of the legal sector code.
Whatever comes out of the legal case against the legal sector code, transformation of the legal profession is inevitable. It’s the right thing to do and we owe it to the future of this country.
Cape Times