President Zuma directs government to empower black lawyers

Friday, July 14, 2017

President Jacob Zuma has directed the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Adv Michael Masutha, to attend to the concerns raised by members of the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) during their protest march on Friday at the Union Buildings.

Amongst the issues raised by the BLA was its dissatisfaction on the lack of representation of black lawyers and women legal practitioners in the State’s briefing patterns and distribution of legal work.

“We take the concerns raised by the Black Lawyers Association very seriously and we genuinely understand their concerns. In this regard, I have directed the Minister of Justice and Correctional Service to look into the challenges raised by the association and give me a report.

“We also encourage all arms of state and all spheres of government to prioritize and empower black lawyers, particularly women,” President Zuma said.

He said the legal fraternity is one of the key sectors that government is targeting as part of the country’s radical socioeconomic transformation programme in order to correct the uneven and unequal racial and gender representation in key sectors of society and in the economy. – SAnews.gov.za