Just when you thought there were too many charters another one springs up. The justice department claims that this charter goes beyond empowerment issues - “It is not one couched in the framework of black economic empowerment legislation only. It also deals with issues of equality and improvement of access to legal services.”
The charter, which is being debated at the justice department's conference this week, will find ways to accelerate procurement from black practitioners, black owned and black empowered enterprises. (This smacks of narrow-based BEE). Apparently the government has undertaken to identify, prioritise and target black lawyers, legal practitioners and companies in awarding tenders, briefs and contracts within the public sector. As much as 50% of government’s legal work requiring private practitioners could be allocated to black practitioners by next year.
The problem with these charters is that they take forever to be finalised and this slows the whole transformation process down. Also the charter has to approved by the minister of trade and industry, and he has a veto right over it in terms of the BBBEE Act. So if the justice minister (Brigitte Mabandla) likes it there is no guarantee that it will make gazetting.
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