Solidarity will take Legal Practice Council to court over discrimination

25 April 2023

Solidarity today threatened the Legal Practice Council in the Western Cape and nationally with legal action if they do not withdraw an application for appointment by the chairperson of the Council in which only “black, coloured and Indian women” are invited to apply.

According to Solidarity, the actions of the Council amount to blatant discrimination, and it is abhorrent that a body representing the legal profession would demonstrate such a disregard for the Constitution as well as the right to equality.

“The Legal Practice Council is, in fact, supposed to place itself above such actions, to hold those accountable who are responsible for the violation of rights in the profession, and to establish the standard for actions. They are now doing the opposite,” said Riaan Visser, head of the Solidarity Law Network. “On the face of it, it looks as if the Council wants to create first- and second-class law practitioners in the Western Cape. The applications are for appointments as arbitrators, mediators, independent experts and liquidators who will appear in the Council’s database. While appointments are made on the basis of race, one can only speculate whether the database will then also be structured on that basis.”

Solidarity demands that the Council, among other things, provide an urgent explanation regarding the decision to base the applications on race. Solidarity argues that there is an increasing tendency to justify harsh discrimination under the banner of so-called transformation without any proper rationale for it.

“It is essential to challenge continuously exclusions such as this, and to test them in the eyes of the law in the strictest possible way. If we do not receive feedback from the Council by 2 May 2023, and particularly if the answers to our questions are not considered satisfactory, we will continue with corrective action. Exclusion based on race and gender is wrong, and it is a downright shame that it is necessary for us to remind the Legal Practice Council of this,” Visser concluded.

Issued by Riaan Visser, Head: Solidarity Law Network, 25 April 2023