Hon Chairperson of the House, hon Minister and Deputy Ministers of Justice and Correctional Services and members of the House, the aim of the Attorneys Bill is to bring about amendments to the Attorneys Act, No 53 of 1979. During the deliberations on the Attorneys Amendment Bill members of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services questioned why, 20 years into democracy, the four law societies in South Africa are still comfortably described in legislation as the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope, the Law Society of the Orange Free State, the Law Society of the Transvaal and the Natal Law Society.
One thing that I need to indicate to the members on my left who are lamenting is that in a democratic dispensation, especially when you are a legal person, you initiate action concerning what affects you instead of lament.
With regard to the comment by the hon Tshabalala, I want to say that you need to be aware of the huge backlog that we still have in terms of amending the statutes that were created by the apartheid government that divided South Africa into so many republics. We had four additional republics and four additional statutes. Therefore, there is a huge amount of work that still needs to be done. For now, we are busy with this legislation and that doesn't necessarily articulate in our concluding the process. You'll probably find yourself in Parliament, part of the portfolio committee and leaving this Parliament without the process of amending these statutes having been concluded.
The Attorneys Amendment Bill, as introduced, provides for the continued existence of the four mainstream law societies under these older names. The proposed amendments allow for an eventual name change by providing that the four law societies could, by resolution of their members, change their names in accordance with a submission made by the committee. The name change will be gazetted by the Minister. The Department of Justice and Correctional Services indicated that this move was intended to take care of the interim phase pending implementation of the Legal Practice Act, which will create provincial law councils to replace the current law societies.
In actual fact, this step is what will help us so that there can come a time when we do not have to worry about differential treatment within the legal profession. There will come a time when you don't have to worry about discrimination within the legal profession. There will come a time when you don't have to worry about the "old boys' club" in the legal profession.
During the discussions particular concern was expressed about the continued referenced in legislation to apartheid geography and the perception created by the retention of old order names such as Transvaal and Cape of Good Hope. Once the Bill is enacted, the four existing mainstream law societies will be known as the Cape Law Society, no longer Cape of Good Hope; the Law Society of the Free State, no longer the Law Society of the Orange Free State; the Law Society of the Northern Province, no longer the Law Society of the Transvaal; and the Law Society of KwaZulu-Natal and no longer the Law Society of Natal.
Significantly, the Attorneys Amendment Bill also seeks to terminate the continued existence of any society which continues to operate in the former TBVC States. The Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei states no longer exist and the remnants of any of the arrangements that came out of the same order should be transformed to be in line with the new democratic and inclusive order and avoid confusion such as the one of the judgement of the High Court of Mabasa vs the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, that was based on the lack of disciplinary and regulatory control in the Bophuthatswana Law Society. The legal fraternity subsequently questioned the continued existence of the Law Society of Bophuthatswana and called on the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services to consider whether it served any purpose.
The department reported that the law societies to be dissolved are largely empty shells and have no or very little infrastructure or personnel. The Attorneys Amendment Bill therefore seeks to dissolve any of the TBVC law societies and amalgamate them with one of the four mainstream law societies in South Africa.