Punish white law firms, but which white?

Law firms in South Africa are not too white. This is the response of business rights watchdog, AfriBusiness, after a large number of Johannesburg lawyers marched to the South Gauteng High Court this week, ‘as law firms are too white and should be punished for it’.

According to AfriBusiness there is no legal basis for this argument, as no law in South Africa makes provision for racial classification. “The Population Registration Act 30/1950 was abrogated in 1991 and after that no law has again been promulgated which classifies people according to race. On the basis of which law do they want to classify people then?” asks Stefan Pieterse, National Spokesperson for AfriBusiness. 

Pieterse says, despite the fact that the lawyers approached the court without an application or action, no respondents or defendants were present, and they did not request any legal remedy which the court could grant of even just consider.

“It’s ludicrous that lawyers should be punished for their skin colour in a so-called non-racial society which is based on constitutional rights like human dignity, freedom of trade, occupation and profession as well as freedom of association.”

“I had to study 10 years for my LLB degree. I worked part-time, concluded my clerkship and earned less than R4000 per month. My story is – like the ones of hundreds of black and white lawyers – one of determination, hard work and achievement. There are no shortcuts to success,” says Pieterse.

Issued by Stefan Pieterse, AfriBusiness Spokesperson, 30 October 2015