Quote of the week
Early in 2016, a racist outburst by a white woman in KwaZulu-Natal, Penny Sparrow, ridiculing Black beachgoers as ‘monkeys’, and announcing that thenceforth she would ‘address the [B]lacks of South Africa as monkeys’, published in her online profile, was quickly disseminated countrywide. It convulsed South Africa in shame and acrid anger. The [Constitutional] Court was not unaffected. Previous members of the Constitutional Court took comfort in reflecting, with evident satisfaction, on the absence of racially loaded and racially defined splits. Dramatically, these now fractured the Court.
"Rainbows and Realities: Justice Johan Froneman in the Explosive Terrain of Linguistic and Cultural Rights" - Constitutional Court Review
If those practitioners who contravene the rules and standards of the profession are not dealt with promptly and effectively by those who have the statutory power and duty to regulate the profession, then instead of ensuring accountability and upholding the integrity and status of the profession a culture of impunity is fostered and the profession is lowered in the eyes of the public, and the values and principles which are essential to its survival are debased. We remind the [Legal Practice] Council that in order to achieve its statutory objectives,35 which include the regulation of the profession and the enhancement and maintenance of its integrity and status, and the protection of the public, it is statutorily enjoined to do all things necessary for the proper and effective performance of its functions and the exercise of its powers.
