Staff Reporter
Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has ordered the Office of the Solicitor-General and provincial state attorneys to draw up new measures within a month to overhaul the allocation of state legal work.
Speaking at the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund Conference in Ekurhuleni, Kubayi said the sustainability of the legal profession depended on whether the sector became more transformed and inclusive.
“The outcry of the majority about the lack of transformation of the legal profession is a risk to the sustainability of the legal profession and our democracy,” Kubayi said.
“It is for this reason that I have made a commitment to work closely with the sector to ensure that we drive meaningful transformation of the legal profession so that our children do not find themselves behaving like mad men and women who repeat the same calls for change their parents made without yielding any results.”
Black lawyers have long complained that state briefs continue to favour established white practitioners over black-owned firms.
Kubayi said she had convened a meeting with the legal profession last week to discuss transformation and had agreed on several practical interventions.
“I have instructed the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), to, in a month from last week Friday, convene a meeting that is transparent and fair and bring in stakeholders and build a system of procurement that can be accountable to the public but also from all professions,” she said.
“[W]e must be able to see how things are done and we can be able to agree that this is our milestone as a sector.”
Kubayi said Black Lawyers Association president Nkosana Mvundlela had promised to submit proposals on the weaknesses in the request-for-quotation system used to allocate legal work.
She said those proposals would be incorporated into the department’s system if they complied with the Public Finance Management Act.
The minister said she and her deputy would also raise legal-sector transformation with other departments through the Intergovernmental National Litigation Forum, including the adoption of the Legal Sector Code.
Kubayi said she had instructed all provincial state attorneys to develop stakeholder engagement frameworks within a month to ensure each office meets stakeholders quarterly.
“Issues discussed will differ from province to province and they may include issues such as briefing patterns, Issues of compliance, payment of invoices and etc,” she said.
She said specific measures would also be implemented to ensure legal practitioners with disabilities were included in the allocation of state legal work.
Kubayi also raised concern about the visibility of women practitioners in state briefing.
“The fact that the state attorney still finds it difficult to find women practitioners to whom they can award briefings should concern all of us and does not sit well with us,” she said.
“We therefore will intensify our efforts to ensure that women become visible and they participate meaningfully.”
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