Black Business Council throws weight behind BBEEE legal battle against Patel

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) has cited objections raised relating to the gazetting of the Legal Sector Code (LSC) as the cause for the delay in having the Code with its amendments gazetted.

This comes as the Black Business Council (BBC) has thrown its weight behind the black legal groups which have hauled minister Ebrahim Patel to court for delaying the gazetting of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) LSC since 2021.

Patel has been taken to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria by the Black Conveyancers Association (BCA), the Black Lawyers Association (BLA), the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL) and the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (PABASA) in which they want the court to declare Patel’s failure to gazette the LSC as unlawful.

BBC said the gazzetting of the LSC was “long overdue”.

“The BBC takes a dim view of the prolonged delay of the gazetting of the LSC as the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr Ronald Lamola, approved the LSC on October 10 2023 and forwarded it to Minister Patel, who has been frustrating this process since 2021. The BBC does not understand why.

“This unreasonable delay, by a minister who is supposed to represent a pro-economic transformation government, means that black practitioners are frustrated and continue to suffer and remain deprived of a sustainable flow of quality legal work,” the BBC said in a statement.

BBC said they decried the “general apathy and deprioritisation” of B-BBEE.

DTIC spokesperson, Bongani Lukhele, said they were “committed to transformation in the economy and in the legal services sector”, in line with the Constitution and the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act (BBBEE Act).

“Following the publication of the initial notice, a range of objections were received from members of the legal profession. The Legal Practices Council was given an opportunity to consider these and where appropriate, to recommend amendments to the Code.

“These were subsequently considered by and submitted through the Minister of Justice to his counterpart. (Patel) was thereafter briefed by his officials on the revised Code and is considering the content of the objections and the proposed Code.

This is necessary to ensure a rigorous and appropriate process of consideration, which will meet the standard required in law and may further limit the grounds to have the Code set aside by the courts should aggrieved parties raise objections,” said Lukhele.

Enquiries to the Legal Practise Council were not answered by deadline on Monday.

The draft LSC detailed that the purpose for the Code “aims to address inequities resulting from the systematic exclusion of black people from meaningful participation in the economy to access South Africa’s productive resources, economic development, employment creation and poverty eradication”.

Cape Times