While the justice & constitutional development department says it is concerned by hundreds of lawyers being disbarred in the past six years, it does not think the future of the judiciary is in trouble.
In all, 376 lawyers were disbarred from practising between 2019 and January 2025, while 502 were suspended in the same period.
There are 121,000 legal practitioners in SA, so the number of disbarred lawyers is not high, legal analysts say.
But justice ministry spokesperson Terrence Manase told Business Day the disbarring of lawyers was worrisome and it could knock public confidence in the legal profession if lawyers are found to have acted unethically.
“The minister [Mmamoloko Kubayi] is indeed concerned about the number of legal practitioners that are being suspended or struck off the roll, as that may be indicative of deeper unethical issues within the legal profession,” he said.
“The barring of so many lawyers has the potential to give the legal profession a bad reputation.
“This may lead to public mistrust in the legal profession, which may then erode confidence in the entire legal system, leading to scepticism towards all legal practitioners.”
Complaints
Each year, the legal council receives 8,000-14,000 public complaints against lawyers, Legal Practice Council Gauteng director Ignatius Briel said.
On average, the legal council strikes off 80-100 practitioners a year.
Despite raising concerns, Manase said the judiciary was still in safe hands.
Judicial officers are chosen from the legal profession.
“The striking off of the unethical legal practitioners would clear the path for a judiciary comprising only of persons with integrity, reliability and unwavering honesty.”
Manase said the systems in place were effective to weed out bad apples.
“The judiciary is tasked with the responsibility of striking off unethical legal practitioners from this noble profession and has discharged this function without fear, favour or prejudice,” he said.
“It is important that institutions such as the Legal Practice Council, established to, among [other things], ensure that legal practitioners adhere to ethical and professional standards, ought to do more to ensure that unethical legal practitioners are weeded out of the profession to protect the judiciary from such unscrupulous persons.”
Several recent cases involving lawyers and judges accused of misconduct have sparked debate about the challenges facing the legal profession.
Cases that have been in the spotlight include the probe by the legal council against Carel Benjamin Schoeman, a lawyer accused of repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl he “bought” from her mother.
Western Cape judge Mushtak Parker has been investigated by the judicial conduct tribunal regarding the alleged misappropriation of multimillion-rand funds by his firm, Parker and Khan Inc, which he managed with two business partners.
The tribunal also investigated Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge, who was accused of sexually harassing Andiswa Mengo, a judges’ secretary.
Legal analyst and Legal Practice Council (LPC) deputy chair Llewelyn Curlewis said the council, with a strengthened collaboration with the NPA, could curb the number of lawyers disbarred.
“If they [the NPA] up their game and we have all these strict policies that we have already put in place, we will see a downward trajectory in the number of lawyers disbarred,” he said.
The council had programmes aimed at addressing the issue, Curlewis said.
“One lawyer struck off the roll is one too many. The LPC has embarked on a series of strategies to reduce the number of lawyers disbarred.”
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