Implementing the Right to Counsel in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract:     
This article describe the South African system of licensing attorneys and advocates and its effect on lawyers of color, in particular blacks. It focuses on that part of the system requiring two year clerkships which have been unavailable to blacks under the apartheid regime, and proposed ways of changing the licensing system to provide the clerkships by allowing alternatives that concurrently provide counsel to indigent defendants in the country's criminal courts. The article analyzes the possible alternatives in light of the new constitution which for the first time provides for the right to counsel for indigent accused at all stages of criminal proceedings. Alternatives such as expansion of existing experimental public defender services and law school clinics are reviewed and analyzed for their cost effectiveness and their client delivery potential. The author's personal experience in helping to develop a law clinic associated with the University of the Western Cape is included in the analysis of these alternatives.

Accepted Paper Series