Transformation not happening – struggling advocate

Advocate Msingathi Mlisana, who recently appeared in court defending an eviction order for failing to pay rent for his chambers, reportedly told the Sunday Times he felt humiliated at having to share his dire financial situation in an open court. ‘The reason we find ourselves in this predicament is that we don’t get work and there is no support from the Bar Council,’ he said. ‘Transformation is not happening. African members of the Cape Bar are discriminated against.’ Mlisana’s lament about the lack of transformation in the legal fraternity is a familiar one, often raised by black senior counsel, notes the report. A group of advocates protested outside Parliament for 30 days last month to urge the government to ‘take bold steps to accelerate, among others, the gender and racial transformation of the legal profession’. The General Council of the Bar disputed claims that there was reluctance to brief black advocates. ‘Many of those who are today household names were heavily briefed at the Bar during their years of practice. The late president of the SCA, Ismail Mahomed, is one example. The late Chief Justice and head of the Constitutional Court, Pius Langa, is another. The current Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke, is a third . . . there are many senior and junior black counsel who are heavily briefed by a wide spectrum of briefing attorneys,’ the Bar said. But advocate Pearl Mathibela, who championed the April protest, said the ‘racial and gender composition of the Cape Bar speaks volumes’. She said more than 77% of the Cape Bar Council’s 452 members were white.

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