NADEL MEDIA STATEMENT ON RICHARD SPOOR’S STATEMENT ON THE ABILITIES OF BLACK ADVOCATES
1. The National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL) notes the statements made by Richard Spoor, who is an attorney in the current Silicosis case in the Gauteng High Court, with utter trepidation.
2. In response to a statement by Advocate Roshnee Mansingh, who had characterised the fact that of the approximately 42 advocates and 100 attorneys involved in this historic class action case as an “arrogant display of white privilege in a black country” because only two black advocates were in sight at court and that 98% of the attorneys were white men, Spoor stated that the work he does “doesn’t leave much room for charity or experimentation” in reference to briefing black counsel.
3. He also stated that his interest as an attorney “is winning the case and (he) (has) no latitude to accommodate unsuitable people” and that colour does not qualify black people if they do not qualify. His requirements for qualification to be briefed by him are being a summa cum laude graduate and bordering on genius. In addition, the people he briefs must have an “avowed and sincere commitment to public interest law”.
4. NADEL states for the record that we have never sought or advocated for charity and patronage from the privileged who command our country’s economic and social destiny. We shall only continue to agitate for a complete transformation of the legal profession and the socio-economic order of our country. Only such transformation will create a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society that we have always fought for.