Chairperson, it looks like we are earning our keep today.
Chairperson, hon members, let me first start by acknowledging and thanking the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, hon John Jeffery for the excellent and sterling work he has done so far today. But also to mention that he is officially delegated the responsibility to oversee our legislative programme and you can see from the products today that he is actually earning his keep. But also to say to him that he has made my job a lot easier because I don't have to say much to hon Tshabalala except to say that, perhaps this is the time when some of her comments she made earlier should be brought up.
Indeed, the laws that we are about to repeal through this Bill are actually apartheid laws which have remained on our Statute Book and continued to be a black spot that we have always wanted to remove. So, we really are proud today that today we are finally taking off our Statute Book homeland and apartheid laws that fragmented our legal profession and did nothing to advance our cause of transformation that we are today pursuing as the ruling party. [Applause.]
Colleagues, I present a Bill aimed at amending the Attorneys Act, No 53 of 1979 as an interim measure, in order to rationalise the legal profession, pending the implementation of the Legal Practice Act, No 28 of 2014.
The attorneys in the former Bophuthatswana area are still regulated separately and there are no proper disciplinary and regulatory controls in place in that area. Candidate attorneys in that area are not required to attend approved practical legal training course, which is considered critical under the Attorneys Act, resulting in the service by candidate attorneys in this area under articles of clerkship not being recognised as proper service for purposes of the Act, and this applies to the then Transkei area as well.
The courts, and in particular the Supreme Court of Appeal, have questioned whether the Law Society of Bophuthatswana serves any useful purpose and have, in fact, urged that urgent and appropriate action be taken, which is what this Bill seeks to do in the main. Chairperson, the provisions of the Bill seeks to address the anomalies I have outlined and to ensure that the legislative framework is in keeping with the new democratic dispensation.
The Bill renames these various professional institutions governing the legal profession in those areas, in this instance, the Cape Law Society, the Law Society of Free State, the Law Society of the Northern Provinces and the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society. Through the enactment of this Bill, practitioners who are admitted to practise in the defunct homelands will now be regulated under the law society that has jurisdiction over the area that formed part of the homeland, as the case may be.
Accordingly, the Bill extends the jurisdiction of the four statutory law societies as follows: (a) The Cape Law Society has jurisdiction over all attorneys practising in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, including the areas of the former Republics of the Transkei and Ciskei and the Northern Cape; (b) the Law Society of the Free State has jurisdiction over all attorneys practising in the Free State; (c) the Law Society of Northern Provinces has jurisdiction over all attorneys practising in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and the North West, including the area of the former Republics of Bophuthatswana and Limpopo, including the area of the former Republic of Venda; and (d) the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society has jurisdiction over all attorneys practising in KwaZulu-Natal.
These provisions, in effect, do away with the former homeland law societies to the extent that they still exist. On that note, it is understood that the law societies that are to be dissolved are largely empty shells and have no or very little assets or infrastructure or personnel to talk of.
The Bill also contains transitional arrangements, for instance, providing that any rights and obligations of any law society which is resolved will transfer to the Law Society of the Northern Provinces in the case of the Law Societies of the former Republics of Bophuthatswana and Venda and to the Cape Law Society in the case of the Law Societies of the former Republics of Transkei and Ciskei. Similar provisions are suggested in respect of pending legal proceedings and disciplinary enquiries that are associated therewith. The transitional provisions also ensure that vested interests are protected in this regard. In the final instance, the Bill extends the Attorneys Act to the entire country and repeals all the former homeland legislation regulating attorneys. Many of the clauses give effect to the notion that law societies are not necessarily bound to specific provinces.
Chairperson, I wish to thank the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, the hon Deputy Minister, who continues to provide support, as well as officials of the department under the leadership of the director-general for the contribution that they have continued to make and, of course, hon members from both the right and the left for your tireless contribution to the legislative programme that takes our country forward. I thank you. [Applause.]