The legality of South Africa’s sector-specific transformation regulations is under scrutiny at the Pretoria High Court, where four law firms are challenging the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) legal sector code.
A full bench of the court is currently hearing the application to review the codes gazetted by Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau in 2024.
The firms said the minister failed to properly consider key evidence before gazetting the codes, rendering the decision irrational and unlawful.
Central to the case is that the framework is fundamentally misconceived, focusing too narrowly on individual legal practitioners rather than the broader legal services sector, while also overlooking how law firms actually operate.
The applicants, Deneys (formerly Norton Rose Fullbright), Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans Attorneys, said measures aimed at transformation, such as tracking spending on black advocates, are overly simplistic and fail to account for the realities of client control and varying fee structures within the profession.
They warn that, instead of advancing transformation, the code risks undermining B-BBEE in the profession.
This disconnect, they claim, shows the decision does not meet constitutional standards of legality and rationality, despite the government’s position that the codes advance equality in line with Section 9 of the Constitution.
