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Recommendations to the Minister October 2017: Recommendation 5

Recommendations to the Minister by the National Forum October 2017

RECOMMENDATION 5
Section 97(1)(a)(v): The National Forum must make recommendations to the Minister on all the practical vocational training requirements that candidate attorneys or pupils must comply with before they can be admitted by the court as a Legal Practitioners.

5.1. RECOMMENDATION:
The National Forum was not able to reach consensus on recommendations relating to the practical vocational training requirements that candidate attorneys and pupils must comply with. The following 3 recommendations are submitted for consideration by the Minister. In addition, the National Forum also wishes to indicate that it is considering a draft compromise containing elements of the 3 recommendations, as described in paragraph 5.1.4 on page 22 below.

5.1.1    Recommendation by the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA), supported by the National Bar Council of South Africa (NBCSA) on the future practical vocational training for all candidate legal practitioners, in terms of the Legal Practice Act. View here.
5.1.2    Recommendation by the General Council of the Bar of South Africa (GCB) and the Advocates For Transformation (AFT). View here.
5.1.3    Recommendation by the National Forum of Advocates (NFA). View here
5.1.4    Draft compromise proposal still being considered by the National Forum

5.1.4.1   As recent as 2 weeks before the submission of these recommendations, the draft compromise Regulation in Appendix “E4”, containing elements of the 3 recommendations in Appendixes “E1”, “E2” and “E3”, was submitted for consideration by the National Forum Plenary meeting on 14 October 2017.

5.1.4.2   The National Forum Plenary discussed the compromise proposal but due to time constraints and in order to allow members to obtain mandates from their constituencies, it was decided to defer further discussions for a later date.  It was also decided to inform the Minister of this development and to request an indulgence from the Minister for more time to consider the draft compromise.

5.1.4.3   The draft compromise Regulation in Appendix “E4” is therefore not submitted as a recommendation, since it is still under consideration by the National Forum, but it is submitted for noting that the National Forum is seriously seeking a compromise.

5.2    IMPLEMENTATION:
It is proposed that the Minister should afford the National Forum more time to consider the draft compromise referred to in paragraph 5.1.4 above.  If more time cannot be allowed for seeking consensus, the Minister should issue a Regulation to give effect to the preferred recommendation.

The procedural requirements for the issuing of Regulations are set out in s 94(2) & (3) and s109(1). In order to enable the Council to function effectively, the Regulation(s) pertaining to this recommendation should become effective when Chapter 2 is enacted or as soon as possible thereafter.