OPINION

SA's unrepresentative judiciary

White lawyers now severely underrepresented on the bench

JOHANNESBURG - The pursuit of race and gender representivity on the bench has been an obsession of the African National Congress since October 1998. For a brief period, during Enver Surty's term justice minister, the expertise and experience of individual applicants for judicial office was given greater weight.

However, under the direction of the new Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, and his allies on the JSC, the primary consideration in the choosing judges is (once again) the attainment of a judiciary which reflects the race and gender proportions of the total population.

This policy is, on the face of it, meant to widen the pool from which judges have previously been appointed. This is proving to be an optical illusion. This policy has, in reality, severely restricted the pool from which judges are appointed; and it has been used to cover-up for severe racial discrimination.

This is because judges are not appointed from the general population, but from the ranks of those with (at the very least) a legal qualification. When measured against the appropriate yardstick - the proportion they take up of the legal profession - white South Africans are now severely underrepresented on the bench. As of July 2009 44,1% of judges were white. This is considerably less than their percentage of the advocates profession (75,6%) and the attorney's profession (73,7%). See graph and tables below.

 

Table 1: Race and gender breakdown of the judicary

 

WHITE

BLACK

COLOURED

INDIAN

Total

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

Chief Justice

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

Deputy Chief Justice

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

President/ Judge President

2

-

9

-

-

-

-

-

11

Deputy Judge President

2

1

2

-

-

-

-

-

5

Judges

71

13

50

16

12

4

10

8

184

Total all Judges

75

14

63

16

12

4

10

8

202

% of total

37.1%

6.9%

31.2%

7.9%

5.9%

2.0%

5.0%

4.0%

100.0%

*Figures as of July 2009. Source: Department of Justice

 

Table 2: Race and gender composition of the general council of the bar

 

WHITE

BLACK

COLOURED

INDIAN

TOTAL

 

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

Silks

333

17

20

1

7

1

24

2

405

Experience of 5 years & more

752

149

113

27

24

12

55

34

1166

Under 5 years

179

89

54

18

5

15

25

16

401

Non-contributing

45

26

22

15

5

4

5

9

131

Total

1309

281

209

61

41

32

109

61

2103

% of total

62.2%

13.4%

9.9%

2.9%

1.9%

1.5%

5.2%

2.9%

100%

* General bar council statistics as of April 30 2009

 

Table 3: Racial composition of the attorney's profession

 

WHITE

BLACK

COLOURED

INDIAN

TOTAL

Equity Partners

8664

1525

461

568

11218

Salaried Partners

1605

262

56

105

2028

Senior Associates

1078

126

42

122

1368

Associates

1322

466

146

287

2221

Consultants

398

477

7

15

897

Total

13067

2856

712

1097

17732

% of Total

73.7%

16.1%

4.0%

6.2%

100%

* Source: National Survey of the Attorney's Profession, Law Society of South Africa, September 2008

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