Despite spending most of his time at a Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interview for a Gauteng high court judge post defending himself against a complaint that he was antitransformation, advocate Piet van Niekerk was one of seven candidates recommended for appointment.
Van Niekerk was among the candidates vying for eight judges’ posts in the division.
He and advocates Richard Moultrie, Susan Wentzel, labour court judge Dephney Mahosi, acting judge Livhuwani Vuma, and attorneys Khashane Manamela and Nkosingiphile Mazibuko were recommended by the JSC for appointment. The commission left one vacancy unfilled.
JSC commissioner and ANC MP Fasiha Hassan asked Van Niekerk what he, as an advocate who had been practising for more than 35 years, had done postapartheid to ensure transformation of the legal sector took place.
She further asked him about an accusation levelled against him by an anonymous advocate that he was antitransformation in his conduct — despite his contribution to the training of young legal practitioners at the Pretoria Society of Advocates.
Van Niekerk told the commission it was possibly a case of mistaken identity.
“That allegation made against me by an anonymous person is not correct,” he said.
Commended for training young advocates
He has been commended by his peers for his dedication to the training of young advocates as the chair of the training committee of the Pretoria Bar.
Van Niekerk said that in 2012 the National Bar Council of SA instructed bars to ensure that two-thirds of their intake of young lawyers accepted for pupillage were historically disadvantaged.
He said he implemented the decision, causing a stir in the bar and resulting in some advocates leaving the training programme.
He said he and a few of his peers made ends meet for the programme not to fail and to train more young black professionals. During his tenure as chair of the programme, he ensured the number of those trained yearly increased from 30 to 60, he added.
“We then started this training programme and said to them, ‘Though we lost some of our court trainers, we have a mandate. We cannot accept these young people into pupillage and set them up for failure. We have a mandate to get these pupils to pass.’ We set up very intensive training at the bar consisting of lectures and workshops,” he said.
Asked by Hassan whether his only contribution to transformation was the training programme, he said, no.
He specialises in aviation law, as a qualified private pilot, and in patrimonial claims in divorce matters, mostly involving trust matters.
“In the training programme we assisted the black juniors to become trainers. That was an initiative that I started. I would not have done that if I were hostile to transformation. No person who is hostile to transformation would go to those lengths,” he said.
Another successful candidate, Vuma, who was grilled in 2021 for hearing a matter at a Spur restaurant on a Sunday afternoon instead of in chambers, told the commission she had learnt from her mistakes.
She assured chief justice Mandisa Maya she would not do do so again.
Transformation of the legal sector has been a point of debate and litigation.
Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau is now engaged in a legal challenge over the broad-based BEE (BBBEE) legal sector code against law firms Norton Rose Fulbright SA (NRF), Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans.
The firms argue the policy targets would be “impossible” to meet and could cause them to lose billions in contracts with big banks and the public sector.
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