ANC MP Luwellyn Landers has lashed out at the legal profession for failing to revamp its “old boys’ network” in 20 years.
|||Cape Town - The legal profession had 20 years in which to rid itself of the “old boys’ network”, but had failed or refused to do so, ANC MP Luwellyn Landers said in a hard-hitting speech on Wednesday.
He said a debate had been raging over the question of why so few black women appeared as candidates before the Judicial Service Commission to be interviewed for positions on the Bench.
Landers quoted Kgomotso Moroka, a senior counsel since 2004, who said in an interview: “There are very talented young women on the Bar, but they don’t have work. They leave and join big firms. It is absolutely and utterly depressing.
“It is a vicious circle we are witnessing - without the relevant experience the black lawyer will not be engaged, and he or she will not gain experience until he or she is engaged.”
MPs and the executive should ask how they could ensure there was an oversupply of black women who would be nominated to serve on the Bench when vacancies arose, instead of there being so few.
Landers, also the chairman of Parliament’s justice oversight committee, was responding to Justice Minister Jeff Radebe’s budget vote speech on Wednesday.
He said the government, as the biggest litigator, was in a position to contribute to transformation by ensuring black woman lawyers were used in its legal work.
While it had to use the best lawyers to make sure it won its cases, and therefore had a right to make use of “the (David) Unterhalters and the (Jeremy) Gauntletts”, MPs expected to see black lawyers representing the state. This would give them much-needed work.
Landers welcomed proposed legislation that would establish the office of a solicitor-general who would be responsible for the transformation of state legal services.
Radebe acknowledged earlier that of the 239 judges, only 76 were women.
The department had increased, from 65 percent to 70 percent this year, its target for the percentage of briefs to be allocated to previously disadvantaged individuals.
While Radebe was congratulated by MPs on some aspects of his department’s work, especially the achievements of the Legal Aid Board, he was roundly criticised for the high-profile setbacks suffered by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the failure to appoint permanent heads of the NPA and Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
DA MP Debbie Schafer said the public were losing faith in the justice system and “the view that the system is failing is corroborated almost every day”.
MPs cited the slap on the wrist handed to fraudster J Arthur Brown, the failed prosecution of the police who killed community activist Andries Tatane, and the NPA’s “persecution” of senior prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach, among other cases.
Schafer said it was “unforgivable” that President Jacob Zuma had yet to appoint a permanent head of the NPA and SIU.
“We can allocate all the money in the world, but if there is no political will to fill crucial positions with fit and proper, suitably qualified people of integrity, the system will not succeed.”
Political Bureau