{"id":475676,"date":"2021-03-15T08:49:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T06:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=475676"},"modified":"2021-03-15T08:49:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T06:49:20","slug":"bee-is-quietly-changing-in-south-africa-and-businesses-are-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/475676\/bee-is-quietly-changing-in-south-africa-and-businesses-are-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"BEE is quietly changing in South Africa &#8211; and businesses are worried"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Business group Sakeliga has raised red flags around a draft code for the legal sector, which it says poses a threat to the independence and functioning of the legal profession.<\/p>\n<p>The code harms not only the private interests of practitioners, firms, and clients, it said, but also the public interest, given the legal professions\u2019 foundational role in a constitutional order.<\/p>\n<p>Now in its second iteration for public comment, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ppv.co.za\/draft-legal-sector-code-invitation-for-comments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft legal sector code<\/a> <\/strong>seeks to bring the legal profession under sector-specific B-BBEE codes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Regulation of the legal industry should serve the function of ensuring and overseeing the quality of service and the independence of the legal sector,&#8221; said Piet le Roux, Sakeliga chief executive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Instead, the draft legal sector code introduces partisan political considerations &#8211; specifically racial transformation &#8211; as matters of law into the industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Properly understood and legitimately pursued, these considerations should rather be matters of public advocacy and lobbying within the industry instead of regulation, the group said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The code, therefore, detracts from the proper functioning of the legal profession and its institutions, and is not acceptable,&#8221; said le Roux.<\/p>\n<p>The codes are also notable for its proposal of onerous pro bono requirement, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The code requires legal firms to offer advocacy work on a yearly basis, which some practitioners have complained will eat into their already busy hours.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If implemented, it would not serve to make legal services more accessible, but rather more expensive and inaccessible, and disproportionately harm smaller firms, le Roux.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BEE is changing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Le Roux said the legal sector code is also instructive regarding new trends in BEE regulations.<\/p>\n<p>In earlier phases, BEE was generally focused on the procurement relationship between the state and providers of products of services to it, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lately, in codes such as the legal sector code, BEE regulation jettisons the requirement of the state as a transacting party.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The new approach is to <strong>regulate for BEE requirements regardless of state involvement<\/strong>, which poses serious implications for freedom to trade and freedom to procure professional services,&#8221; Le Roux said.<\/p>\n<p>Le Roux pointed to the proposed Property Practitioners Act and Conduct of Financial Institutions Act as legislative developments with a similar application of BEE.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/474196\/south-africans-who-break-covid-19-rules-outside-of-work-can-land-in-trouble-with-their-bosses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africans who break Covid-19 rules outside of work can land in trouble with their bosses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business group Sakeliga has raised red flags around a draft code for the legal sector, which it says poses a threat to the independence and functioning of the legal profession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":94621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,14851],"class_list":["post-475676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-sakeliga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475676"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475720,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475676\/revisions\/475720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}