A new voice to represent Black legal professionals to be unveiled in Durban

Black legal professionals will officially launch the African Legal Professionals Association (ALPA) to tackle barriers and address challenges faced by legal practitioners in the profession. The newly formed association will represent and focus on serving the needs of African legal professionals, particularly Black Africans in South Africa to mitigate the constraining and marginalizing environment that has characterized the profession over the past years in pursuit of equal transformative justice for all.

Former Judge President John Hlophe of the Western Cape Division of the High Court will be a keynote speaker at the formal-wear-themed launch of the association. Judge President Hlophe is known as a vocal proponent of demographic transformation in the South African judiciary and served as the Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa from May 2000 until March 2024.

The ALPA will be a voluntary membership organization open to Africans and anyone who shares its values and agenda within the legal profession.

ALPA Interim Committee and Founding Member Phumla Manzi-Ntshingila says: “Black legal practitioners face an array of barriers throughout their legal careers. These barriers differ during the profession. A shortage of opportunities or few connections to established members of the profession is another challenge. Connections remain largely an important part of having access to lucrative government work. Briefing patterns both at the bar and at firms tend to prefer a smaller selection of black lawyers or advocates. History tells us that the majority of black legal practitioners are still trapped in squalid conditions due to being systematically sidelined from having access to lucrative government work.”

The details of the launch are as follows:

Venue: Blue Waters Hotel, 175 Snell Parade, Durban

Date & Time: Saturday, 22 June 2024, Time: 09h30

The ALPA will unite all African legal professionals behind a common purpose and vision that positions them as a solution to the transformation agenda to achieve economic growth and participation in the South African mainstream economy.

The marginalization of African legal practitioners continues to rear its ugly head and sometimes manifests itself in courts where judges lament the exclusion of black African legal practitioners in the representation of lawyers by big corporations, including public institutions. 

ALPA is being established to become part of the solution and will collaborate with the government, relevant departments, the judiciary, and other professional bodies to monitor, protect, and advance the interests of the legal profession and legal professionals.

“At present, those who are supposed to fight for us to redress the imbalances of the past are currently serving their interests at the expense of their constituents. This is evidenced by their appointments in different government State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and other organs of state while the majority remain marginalized. Hence, as legal professionals, we have decided to stand up and champion our cause. It is now official that we will be unveiling an organization called the African Legal Professionals Association, which has an interim structure with a mandate to change the status quo,” concludes Phumla Manzi-Ntshingila.