Chairperson, this is a Bill that has taken much too long to come to Parliament. But, part of the problem with it has been that there was an expectation that the Legal Practice Bill would be finalised a lot more quickly.
The Legal Practice Bill, for the hon Litchfield-Tshabalala's information, is an Act now. It has been finalised and assented to by the President. But the Legal Practice Act took a long time to be finalised because there were attempts to get consensus between the attorneys and the advocates. The attorneys and advocates' profession, in terms of the Constitution, are independent. If we force things on them, there will probably be a number of Constitutional Court challenges. You've got to take people along with you.
It reminds me of a tweet I saw earlier in relation to the discussion, from one of your supporters as the EFF, through you Chair, of somebody saying why they are talking about taking 20 years to repeal apartheid laws, Sankara did it in four years. I think it is quite apt, particularly today, with what is happening in Burkina Faso right now, that if you don't build hegemony, if you don't take people with you, then change goes wrong. If you look at what happened to Thomas Sankara and what is happening in Burkina Faso right now, that lesson needs to be learnt. [Interjections.]
I'm disappointed that the EFF is saying that they are not supporting this Bill because it has got nothing to do with the poor. There are two reasons why you should support the Bill. The first one is that this Bill does provide protection to the people in the former self-governing states, or whatever they were called, by ensuring that they fall under the constituted law societies. Some of those people may well be poor. So, again, it's another sound byte to say, "No, this has nothing to do with the poor, and we don't support the Bill".
Secondly, the Bill is required in terms of a court decision. And again there is a contradiction by the EFF - one moment they support the courts and the decisions and the next moment they don't. [Interjections.] You are more than willing to run off to the courts if you think it will help you, but it's very opportunist. Those are two reasons why you should support the Bill. The amendments, as far as the law societies, those law societies have in fact already changed their names some time ago, and the Bill is just basically legislating that those statutory names no longer exist.
In short, this is an overdue Bill. It is overdue because things took a longer with the Legal Practice Act than were expected, and there will still be about another three years before that Act can come fully into effect as attorneys and advocates, amongst others, negotiate in the consultative forum on the powers of provincial councils and so on. It is necessary for short-term relief to ensure that the people living in Bophuthatswana, for example, specifically do have proper regulation of attorneys in their area. I hope that the House will support the Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Question put.
Bill read a second time.
Consideration of request for approval by parliament of Nairobi international convention on the removal of wrecks, 2007, in terms of section 231(2) of THE Constitution