Special Hearings — Legal Hearings — 1997-10-27

MS MOODLEY: My name is Desree Moodley and I'm dealing with the section on rule of the legal system. It is clear that White lawyers enjoyed the benefits of the apartheid system. Some lawyers even helped to bolster and protect the system.
They acted as gate-keepers of the system by restricting entry into the profession by Black people. They also ensured that lawyers who challenged the system were struck off the role.
 For example, the well reported case of Patrick Magubela. Others merely watched, reaped the rewards and took no action to challenge the system.
 This submission will explore briefly the benefits enjoyed by White lawyers, their role in protecting the apartheid system and more importantly it will focus on recommendations to both remedy the imbalances that have resulted and to prevent a re-occurrence of these inhumane activities.
 White lawyers enjoyed almost exclusive support from parastatals and other Government agencies. They were instructed to perform legal work for Departments like the Police, Defence, Transport and many others.  In so doing they both enjoyed monetary reward and the satisfaction that they are protecting the state from "Die Swart gevaar." Local Government agencies and big business also placed their needs squarely in the hands of these White lawyers. It is no surprise that the Legal Profession in South Africa reflects such grave imbalances. 
 Furthermore institutions such as the Legal Aid Board were established to assist these practitioners. It is clear that the system of legal aid as it is currently run, protects the interest of practitioners as opposed to the indigent person.
 This system emerged at a time when White practitioners were the major beneficiaries in running these bodies..(tape ends)
....exclude black people. Other such bodies were subtle in their approach. However, they achieved the same goal, the restriction of entry into the legal profession. It is within this backdrop that we present the following recommendations, to both prevent such dehumanization and inequities from recurring, and to redress the imbalances that have resulted. The recommendations will be dealt with by Ms. T. Tirimul? Thank you.
MS T. TIRIMUL: Good day everyone. Even though the above submissions and recommendations may seem trivial in the light of the big picture being put together by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we consider them to have contributed to the dehumanization of black people under apartheid and therefore we chose to focus on these subjects - these aspects.
 An important step that ought to be recommended by the Truth Commission, is that the bodies that currently govern the legal profession, ought to be transformed and restructured, even though they represent the majority among legal practitioners, they do not represent the wider interest of society, in fact, if they were to continue as is, it is clear that little or no change will occur within the profession. It is likely that other forms of discrimination will occur. It is not enough to merely say, "sorry". Serious change needs to occur to protect the interest of both the current and emerging black practitioner.  Secondly, parastatals and other government agencies ought to ensure that legal work is equitably distributed and a concerted effort is made to instruct black law firms. 
 The law degrees ought to be re-examined and modified to ensure that more black students emerge from university with the ability to practice effectively. Currently, legal education is far removed from the realities of practice. Little or no attention is given to the issues that affect black people, both in the substantive law that is taught and in the methods used to teach. 
 Family law is still taught without reference to black divorce courts. Pressure ought to be applied on law teachers and universities to also build that method of teaching and the content of that courses.
Even though universities ought to be independent, some intervention is clearly required to undo the injustices of the past. 
 It is submitted, that it is time to also look at how monies in the Fidelity Fund is used, and who has the responsibility for making these decisions. 
 It is further submitted that the Fidelity Fund ought to utilize its money to support the above initiatives. It ought to ensure that more money is spent on bursaries and student support programs to increase the number of black practitioners. It ought to provide greater support to law clinics who carry the burden often exclusively, of teaching students the skill required to practice and exposing them to the realities of the legal profession.
 Finally, it is submitted that one of the more significant ways in which those who enjoyed the benefits of the past could make amends is to provide service to the community whom they allowed to be subjugated. As students, we can say that we do not want the money of these practitioners, we do not want them to go on their hands and knees and beg for forgiveness, we do not want anymore platitudes and token gestures. The apology of the Pretoria Bar, amongst others is noted. However, we need to go beyond this and ask ourselves, what are we going to do in concrete terms to redress the imbalances, to demonstrate, that we really are sorry?
 The law clinic suggests that these practitioners share their skills and resources. In concrete terms all it requires is for each governing body to co-ordinate a programme where private practitioners volunteer their time to university law faculties, university law clinics and other community service organisations. If each governing body were to organise such an effort to ensure that more pro bona work, and a greater degree of community service is carried out, then we would have gone beyond platitude to really transforming our society, to ensure that resources are shared, skills are shared and that the human dignity is restore and protected. Thank you.

YASMINE SOOKA: : Thank you very much, it was very good, really.

STUDENT: ...(inaudible) So whether their Justice Vision 2000 incorporates some of them or not, I think these are really original, it's off the record.