Black Bar set up to tackle white domination

Leading black advocates have announced their intention to take on white male supremacy in the legal community by forming a Bar association with a majority of black and female members. ‘We are unapologetically black and women orientated,’ Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, one of the founding members of the Pan African Bar Association of SA (Pabasa), said at the voluntary association’s launch yesterday, according to a Business Day report. ‘We are creating an atmosphere where being black and being a woman are the norm. We are creating an atmosphere where black people and women do not need to explain themselves; do not need to seek white male validation to be recognised.’ Pabasa, which already has 70 prospective members, aims to ensure that black and female advocates are briefed to argue cases involving commercial, tax and construction law – areas that Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi argues have been dominated by white males. This, he said, was because white partners in law firms were more inclined to brief white male junior advocates to argue these cases. ‘This nonsense where they keep saying “we don’t know who to brief because we don’t know you guys” must really come to an end because you know its name – it’s racism. Pabasa wants to stop racism at its root and we want to stop the sweet-talking nonsense. So if I mess up a case, I shouldn’t get the work. But if I win a case, I shouldn’t be excluded just because I’m black. We have to start by breaking down these patterns of privilege that reinforce whiteness,’ he said.

Senior Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza also backed the association. He said that in his 30 years as a legal professional, ‘(I) never felt that I was equal, that I was treated as an equal; never felt that I was free and I certainly never felt that I was treated with dignity’. According to Business Day, Ngcukaitobi explained Pabasa aimed to equip advocates excluded from commercial work, by creating a ‘school’ – funded by law firms and with judges, among other experts, providing training – that could address gaps in knowledge and experience. Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, responsible for the rulings that enabled the commission of inquiry into state capture to go ahead, said the judiciary he led supported Pabasa’s goals. ‘The judiciary I lead congratulates you on this project, and it is a judiciary that has assured me that it looks forward to co-operating with you fully, in terms of the agenda you’ve set for yourself.’

In another transformation matter in the legal profession, the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) has applauded the Legal Practice Council for ‘its unwavering confidence in women leadership’ when at its first official meeting it elected attorney Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu and Advocate Anthea Platt as chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively.  In a statement yesterday, the BLA says: ‘We note with pride and applaud the new leadership of the profession as it once more unequivocally demonstrated its commitment to the values of the Constitution ... by electing two black women as the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the Legal Practice Council.’ It warns of the need to guard against ‘cheap talk (by) those who are against change. As agents of change in the legal profession, we have always known that there were going to be resistance from some people who are used to privilege and see equality as injustice’. It adds: ‘The 31st of October 2018 marks a very important day in our history as a profession and country. The provincial law societies which regulated the legal profession for more than 100 years shall permanently close their doors when we usher in the Legal Practice Council in their place. In our history it will be for the first time that advocates and attorneys shall be under the authority of one regulatory body.’ Members of the newly-elected executive committee of the Legal Practice Council are: Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu (chairperson); Anthea Platt (vice-chairperson); Greg Harpur; Lutendo Sigogo; Jan Stemmett; Philip Zilwa; Trudie Nichols.

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