- The Cape Bar says declining the request of advocate Anton Katz can by no means be termed anti-transformative.
- Katz SC resigned from the Bar, citing an outdated housing policy which often disadvantages young, black and woman advocates.
- The Bar said it is saddened by his resignation.
The Cape Bar society of advocates says declining a request by advocate Anton Katz SC for an exemption from its housing policy, based on certain facts, can by no means be termed anti-transformative.
"On the contrary, it avoids a situation of historically disadvantaged persons subsidising the costs of privileged members, such as Katz SC," the chairperson, Brenton Joseph SC, said in four-page response for comment on Tuesday.
"Furthermore, the Bar Council could not have made a determination as to good cause in the absence of the facts being placed before it," he added.
Katz SC resigned from the Cape Bar, stating that the organisation's housing policy is outdated and often disadvantages young, black and woman advocates, News24 reported.
Katz also said an "authoritarian mindset" had, to a certain extent, remained part of the culture at the Cape Bar.
In August, he had applied for an exemption from the requirement of keeping chambers approved by the Bar Council, citing personal circumstances.
He said his exemption application was rejected without him being afforded a hearing.
Joseph said Katz sought an exemption from the obligation to keep chambers "not because he could not afford to keep chambers or because he was a historically disadvantaged person, but on account of undisclosed personal circumstances, which he asked the Bar [to] take his word on".
In addition, the Bar states that, in support of his application, Katz SC made written representations, was granted a further opportunity to supplement those representations through an oral hearing, and was requested to provide certain specific information.
"He declined to accede to the latter invitation and, instead, tendered his resignation.
"In so doing, he suggests that the Cape Bar (being the institution that he has been a member of for 30 years) is both authoritarian and anti- transformative," he said.
He added that, for the Cape Bar to have approved Katz SC's application, it would have yielded a result whereby its members would have to meet the rental costs of vacant chambers occasioned by any exemption granted to him.
Members include black and/or junior and/or women and/or members who are already suffering severe financial strain.
"Thereby placing addition financial strain on (in many cases) an already vulnerable and historically disadvantaged group of persons. To have declined the request on these facts can by no means be termed anti-transformative," he explained.
The Cape Bar notes that the obligation to keep chambers derives not only from the Constitution of the Cape Bar, but also from the requirements of the Code of Conduct for All Legal Practitioners issued in terms of the Legal Practice Act, 28 of 2014.
The Bar added it was not correct for Katz to suggest the constitutional imperative to keep Bar-approved chambers had a "severe effect on junior black and female advocates".
"On the contrary, members are afforded an opportunity to apply for chambers within their financial means," he explained.
Joseph said they were saddened by Katz's resignation as he had been an active member of its association for a long period of time.
"We would have hoped that he would have allowed for the process to run its course and, to this end, to have engaged fully and openly with the Bar Council.
"Regrettably, he did not do so. We wish him well in his future endeavours," Joseph concluded.
The Bar added that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for it to revisit its housing policy.
Therefore, a sub-committee has been set up to consider the housing policy and to make proposals for its amendment.
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