White lawyers underrepresented on SA Bench

 

“ANC’s racist obsession covers up racial discrimination” - report

JOHANNESBURG - The pursuit of ‘race and gender representivity’ has been an obsession of the African National Congress since October 1998. For a brief period, during Justice Minister Enver Surty 's term, the expertise and experience of individual applicants for judicial office was given greater weight.

However, under the direction of the new Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, and his allies on the JSC, the primary consideration in the choosing judges is (once again) the attainment of a judiciary which ‘reflects the race and gender proportions of the total population’. White South Africans now are severely underrepresented on the Bench.

As of July 2009  - 44,1% of the judges were white. This is considerably less than their proportional percentage of the advocates profession (75,6%) and the attorney's profession (73,7%). See graphs and tables on this link

Graphic: ‘As is the case with educational, medical, accounting, engineering and all technical professionals, the pool of  judges also is small in South Africa: judges don’t come from the ‘general population’  but from a small pool of attorneys… South Africa now has 1,309 attorneys qualified for the Bench, of whom 281 are white women;

This policy is, on the face of it, meant to widen the pool from which judges have previously been appointed. This is proving to be an optical illusion. This policy has, in reality, severely restricted the pool from which judges are appointed; and it has been used to cover-up for severe racial discrimination.

This is because judges are not appointed from the general population, but from the ranks of those with (at the very least) a legal qualification.

When measured against the appropriate yardstick – the (tiny) proportion they take up of the legal profession - white South Africans are now severely underrepresented on the bench.

As of July 2009  - 44,1% of judges were white. This is considerably less than their percentage of the advocates profession (75,6%) and the attorney's profession (73,7%). See graph and tables on this link.Source: National Survey of the Attorney's Profession, Law Society of South Africa, September 2008

view the breakdown of individual judiciary jobs in tables on: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=153124&sn=Marketingweb_detail

Click here for  National Survey of the Attorney’s Profession survey report

Enver Surty: http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=4750

Jeff Radebe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Radebe