Transformation row grips Cape Bar Council

Cape Town - A controversy about transformation at the Cape Bar is reaching boiling point with lobby group Advocates for Transformation (AFT) effectively shunning the Cape Bar Council by refusing to recognise it and urging AFT members not to apply to take silk (become senior counsel).

In a letter to its members, AFT Western Cape chairman Greg Papier said: “It is clear that (the CBC is) of the opinion they will decide when and on what basis transformation and empowerment of black people will take place at the Cape Bar.

“Members, this is exactly the reason why they refuse to allow a credible and reputable transformation agent such as AFT to be a part of their governance structures.”

He told members the council would rather “choose to have their own hand-picked’ blacks” only there to do their bidding.”

Papier also wrote: “Members, we know that these hand-picked blacks are elected by the white majority at the Cape Bar only as a front’ so that people outside of the Bar may think that there is real transformation at the Cape Bar.”

The Cape Bar and the AFT in the Western Cape have been at loggerheads over the slow pace of transformation. Of the 470 advocates at the Cape Bar, 112 are black and 77 are AFT members

The issue is expected to be raised at the General Council of the Bar of South Africa’s annual general meeting on October 1. The CBC and its Northern Cape counterpart are the GCB constituent bars without 50 percent AFT representation.

At a Cape Bar special general meeting earlier this year, members were asked to vote on an AFT proposal to amend the Bar's constitution so that half of the council members come from the AFT. Currently, the constitution states 50 percent of the council must be black, regardless of whether they are AFT members. The proposal was rejected.

Now the AFT wants an amendment to the GCB constitution to have all constituent bars provide for 50 percent AFT representation. If it doesn’t do so, the AFT wants the GCB to expel the CBC and its delegates barred from participating in any GCB structures. The AFT has asked its members not to take silk until the issue has been resolved.

In a letter to CBC chairwoman Tanya Golden, Papier said: “As you know this decision was taken in light of AFT’s view that the Cape Bar remains totally untransformed despite the fact that it currently appears to be run by mostly black and white women. The above decision was not taken lightly, particularly in light of the possible prejudice to our members, who wish to apply for silk... The needs of the collective far outweigh the needs of the individual - in this case the large number of black juniors who will ultimately benefit when AFT is part of the governance at the Cape Bar.”

He requested that the lodging of silk applications be postponed until after the GCB’s AGM.

Golden refused and responded in writing that the AFT had participated fully in the formulation of silk selection criteria. She said silk applications for 2015 were not called for because of delays in the AFT’s input on selection criteria. Several AFT members served in structures to facilitate the silk appointment process.

Golden wrote “your difficulty appears to be that AFT Western Cape can achieve more in the way of transformation than the Cape Bar has. While we accept that the Cape Bar has a long way to go to ensure that it is sufficiently transformed, the magnitude of this challenge is borne out by the fact that AFT hasachieved very little in the way of transformation.”

The underlying premise of the AFT’s proposal to the GCB was that its members, regardless of whether they were black or white, could do better at furthering transformation. “This premise is not only unjustified but also a manifestly absurd one. Indeed, despite the debates to date, AFT Western Cape has not been able to provide a factual basis for this premise,” she wrote.

Papier denied the AFT was involved in the formulation of the silk criteria. He wrote to AFT members, calling the council “arrogant” and “aloof”.

Golden did not respond to a request for further comment.

Weekend Argus