Cape Town -
A senior advocate has gone on the attack over “skewed” briefing patterns, which, he said, resulted in black and women counsel being overlooked.
He said this applied especially to those who had studied at previously disadvantaged universities.
Ashton Schippers, SC - who said he was from the Cape Flats - was one of eight candidates interviewed on Wednesday by the Judicial Service Commission at a city hotel to fill four vacancies at the Western Cape High Court.
Schippers’ interview centred largely on the slow pace of transformation in the legal profession.
This came amid hot debate during Wednesday’s interviews over the transformation of the Bench, particularly the lack of women judges.
It emerged that on the Western Cape Bench, eight of the 28 judges are women and only one is an African woman.
Of the 20 men, nine are white, five African, four coloured and two Indian.
Besides the one African woman on the Bench, there are three coloured women, as well as two who are Indian and another two white.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe questioned many of the interviewees about whether they considered themselves ideal candidates, not only in relation to whether they were “fit and proper” to be a judge, but also whether they believed their appointment would advance transformation goals.
Early in his interview, Schippers raised concern over the briefing of advocates.
He said he had researched briefing patterns for matters which had appeared in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court over the last three months.
He said he had found that “not less than 70 percent” of appearances in these two courts over that period had been white, male advocates.
The University of the Western Cape’s Dean of the Law Faculty, Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen, had also in recent months told him about an incident last year in which one of her graduates - who had been doing her articles at a big law firm at the time - was asked by a partner “what it was like to have received education at an inferior institution”.
“Now I don’t have to tell you that partner will never brief a black advocate, let alone someone from UWC,” said Schippers.
He believed that in order to bring about change, attorneys had to change their briefing patterns by making use of black and women advocates.
Senior counsel had to do the same by roping them in as junior counsel.
This could result in the transfer of skills and, consequently, the expansion of the pool of potential judges.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng also made his voice heard on the issue, saying students from previously disadvantaged universities were “almost condemned to mediocrity” because these institutions did not have the budget to afford professors and lecturers with “strings of degrees”.
“That speaks to the attorneys and advocates who come from there and quality of work that is going to be given to those people,” said Justice Mogoeng.
However, Gauteng Judge President Bernard Ngoepe warned that while people should be given opportunities, it should not give rise to a “culture of entitlement” and the relaxing of professional standards.
The JSC also interviewed magistrate Nonkosi Saba, attorneys Stephen Koen, Pearl Mantame, Judith Cloete and Nape Dolamo and advocates Jeremy Gauntlett, SC, and Owen Rogers, SC.
Gauntlett’s much-anticipated interview was relatively subdued.
His candidacy stirred up controversy this week when Paul Ngobeni, former special adviser to Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, wrote a scathing letter to the JSC claiming that Gauntlett was “uniquely unfit” for the Bench.
This was followed by a response by Gauntlett, while the JSC also received a flurry of correspondence in support of him.
Another talked-about candidate was Rogers. When he was not appointed last year it sparked successful litigation from the Cape Bar Council against the JSC.
Rogers stuck to his published view that the institution of “silk” should be abolished.
Cape Times