Lawyer's 'secret' sexual harassment inquiry questioned

South Africa's Legal Practice Council (LPC) has confirmed that a sexual harassment inquiry into a prominent Cape Town lawyer, accused by two female lawyers of behaving inappropriately while they were candidate attorneys, will be held in secret. The complainants have told the council that the lawyer inappropriately touched and/or made sexually loaded comments to them between 2012 and 2018. The male litigator, who resigned from his position at a top firm in 2018 after being accused of sexual harassment, will today face a disciplinary inquiry. While acknowledging that the chairperson of the inquiry into the lawyer had given a ruling that prohibited the inquiry from being held in public, the LPC has refused to provide that decision to News24. Nor has it given it to the lawyer’s accusers. It has also sought to justify its closure of the proceedings of the inquiry into the lawyer with provisions from the Criminal Procedure Act typically used to protect sexual violence survivors and children in conflict with the law.

In response to queries about its reasons for shielding the lawyer from public scrutiny, given that the sexual harassment hearing against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge was broadcast nationally, the LPC’s executive committee has stressed that the inquiry is being conducted by an independent panel – and it therefore has no ability to influence its processes. ‘While disciplinary hearings of the LPC are, in terms of section 38(4)(a) of the LPA (Legal Practice Act), open to the public, the LPA empowers the chairperson of the disciplinary committee to direct, on application and good cause shown, that proceedings be held in camera,’ LPC chairperson Pule Seleka, according to News24. ‘The LPC acknowledges media interest in this matter, but it is generally not in a position to express any comments on matters that are the subject of disciplinary proceedings,’ he added.

As previously reported in Legalbrief Africa, an LPC investigative committee had established that there was a case for the attorney to answer in respect of accusations that he inappropriately touched and/or made sexually loaded comments to two candidate attorneys between 2012 and 2018. The lawyer threatened News24 with urgent legal action if it published his name in respect of these accusations. ‘It is clear from the provisions of the relevant LPC policy/code and the Act that these proceedings, including all its contents, are confidential,’ he stated. He said he fully intended ‘to defend myself against the complaints which I maintain are, in certain respects and in others, based upon complaints that have misconstrued my conduct, and I would encourage such process to be expedited’.

Full News24 report