Hon Chair, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, the justice system is one of the key priorities and a priority area to build and achieve a national democratic society. The inequalities brought by apartheid's spatial framework had a serious impact on our third sphere of government, which is the judiciary. There was a huge gap between attorneys that had practised in the former homelands and attorneys who had practised in former white-dominated areas.
The government of the ANC seeks to amend the Attorneys Bill to bring synergy to the legal fraternity so as to standardise the sector. We have introduced regulations to this particular Bill that we are speaking about. We are speaking about the right of appearance in court so as to undermine the differentiation in the treatment between attorneys admitted under the Attorneys Act, No 53 of 1979, which applies to candidate attorneys throughout the rest of South Africa. Once implemented, the Legal Practice Act will rationalise the legal profession.
South Africa and her people need a transparent, transformed, public- centered and responsive legal profession. The Legal Practice Act adopts an incremental approach in this regard. Section 8 of the Attorneys Act regulates the appearance of candidate attorneys in court and before other institutions. The regulation seeks to protect candidate attorneys in the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei states, whose rights of appearance were issued by TBVC law societies, such as Bophuthatswana. Implementing this Bill would bring these laws towards its final termination.
This amendment provides that any candidate attorney entitled to appear in court under the former TBVC laws may continue to appear, despite the fact that those laws will be repealed by this Bill. The candidate attorneys may then apply to one of the existing law societies that have jurisdiction, for a certificate which indicates that he or she complies with the relevant requirements of the Attorneys Act.
The Bill was introduced by the department. It provides for the rights of appearance of former TBVC States attorneys. It said that there will be five years before the commencement of this Bill.
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services debated this matter and decided that the inclusion of a time bar in the clause would be prejudicial. A decision was taken to remove the reference to the five-year time bar by deleting the subclause to avoid any potential prejudice to candidate attorneys from those TBVC States. This regulation will give effect to the decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of Mabaso.
This refers to a case in 2005 of Mabaso vs the Law Society of the Northern Provinces and another. In that case, Justice O'Regan, as she was then, found that the discrimination caused by section 20 of the Attorneys Act, No 53 of 1979, was unconstitutional. In an ordinary procedure for admission and enrolment as an attorney, it is just a substantive ex parte application under section 15 of the Attorneys Act. A court considering such an application must be satisfied that all the requirements set out in the Act have been met, and, in particular, that the applicant is a fit and proper person to be so admitted and enrolled.
Section 20 prescribes a short procedure in this regard. In the case of Mabaso, the Constitutional Court held that the differentiation between attorneys who were admitted under the Attorneys Act and, for instance, those admitted under the former Bophuthatswana and Venda legislation was unacceptable. The Constitutional Court yet again emphasised what progressive forces are saying about equal access as a matter of great importance and making sure that any legislation passed by those homelands are discriminatory. That this discrimination reinforced and perpetuated a pattern of disadvantage, which impaired the fundamental human dignity of the natives.
The introduction of this Bill and its regulation therefore, inter alia, seeks to avoid the perpetuation of such patterns and disadvantage, and the impairment of human dignity. The Bill amends the Attorneys Act in line with the Constitutional Court's judgment in the case of Mabaso. The Bill also provides that any person who was entitled to be admitted and enrolled in terms of the 1984 Bophuthatswana Attorneys, Notaries and Conveyances Act shall continue to be entitled, provided that that person meets the necessary requirements.
I have heard the contribution to the debate by hon member Tshabalala of the EFF. I have been trying to write something about the content of what she had said, but I have written nothing, as in terms of the content, there is nothing she has said. Furthermore, I have to say that the EFF would have supported this Bill if the hon member had attended the meetings of the portfolio committee. She does not attend those meetings.
However, we must note that we have joined an organisation that is turning 103 next year. Part of its role is to make sure that the support given by the majority of the people of South Africa ... to make sure that the laws that were passed 350 years ago are changed with time ... [Interjections.]