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Attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is known for representing the EFF in court.
- The resignation of two of the leading advocates speaks of a failure to embrace transformation within the legal profession, says acclaimed defender Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.
- This week, attorney Anton Katz left the Cape Bar after a dispute over the organization’s housing policy, which forces members to keep approved cameras.
- Lawyer Ishmael Semenya resigned from the Johannesburg Society of Defenders last month, after a decision was made to prevent non-members from practicing in the Pitje Chambers.
The resignation of two of the top advocates from their respective legal associations speaks to a lack of transformation within the legal profession, according to acclaimed defender Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.
READ | Anton Katz SC resignation: Cape Bar policy puts black and female defenders at a disadvantage
Ngcukaitobi shared on his Facebook page that while the resignations of Anton Katz SC and Ishmael Semenya SC, of Cape Bar and Johannesburg Society of Advocates respectively, raised policy and rule issues within the legal fraternity, “a deeper understanding of their two letters show that the issues relate to concerns about the Bar Association’s untransformed culture. “
“The Law on Legal Practice calls for the transformation of the profession, from the bottom up. However, experience shows our collective inability to adopt the new rules,” said Ngcukaitobi.
This week, Katz left the Cape Bar after nearly 30 years, citing a dispute over a housing policy, which hurt young black and female defenders, as the reason for his resignation.
Katz also lashed out at the Bar for its “authoritarian mentality.”
The housing policy was generally considered outdated and recognized as needing radical reform, Katz said. He added that this policy had a “severe effect on young black and female defenders, who can have serious financial challenges.”
Reply
Cape Bar president’s advocate Brenton Joseph said the organization would release a statement Tuesday in response to Katz’s resignation.
Last month, Semenya resigned from the Johannesburg Defenders Society after 34 years as a member. Semenya said the turning point had been a resolution adopted to prevent non-JSA members from practicing in the Pitje Chambers in downtown Johannesburg.
Semenya claimed that the housing rule was outdated.
“I refuse to be a member of an association that says that people who qualify to practice as reference legal professionals under the laws of the country, cannot do so with their colleagues in the Bar unless they become members of the JSA. This, to me, is market segmentation by force, “Semenya said.
In response to Semenya’s resignation, the president of the Johannesburg Defenders Society, Kennedy Tsatsawane SC, said he was saddened by the resignation and the reasons for it.
He added that “there was still room, indeed a lot of room, to avoid the decision that [Semenya has] now taken “.
Tsatsawane added that he hoped to resolve the issues raised by Semenya at the organization’s AGM.
Ngcukaitobi shared his belief that the issues posed by the resignations spoke of the profession’s inability to implement effective transformation.
These problems had been exacerbated by Covid-19, Ngcukaitobi added, and junior legal professionals felt the impact most acutely.
The general response to calls for transformation had been “empty epithets,” Ngcukaitobi said.
“The problem, of course, is that the answers to the profession’s problems lie in the profession itself. But first you must accept its complicity in the continuing marginalization and prejudice against black professionals and women.”
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