The Objectives of the GCB

• To consider, promote and deal with all matters concerning the teaching and practice of law and the administration of justice, in the interest of the public;
• To deal with all matters affecting the profession and to take action thereon;
• To uphold the interests of advocates in South Africa

Mission Statement

1. The Bar identifies itself fully with the ideals, aspirations and challenges presented by a new democratic South Africa.
2. As a body of independent practitioners, the Bar is committed to providing specialised legal representation, at fair fees, to all persons who require such service.
3. By providing this representation, as well as facilities for the protection of human rights, access to justice for indigent persons and alternative dispute resolution, the bar serves all the people of South Africa.
4. We shall continue to strive towards the attainment of justice for all according to the rule of law and support reforms designed to achieve this goal.
5. The Bar is committed to:

• the maintenance of an independent judiciary;
• ensuring that the Bar is representative of all sections of the South African population;
  
• providing greater access to justice by the expansion of legal services to all who require them, while maintaining the high standards, professional integrity and independence which are established hallmarks of the Bar.

Constitution of the General Council of The Bar of South Africa

(Amendments as approved up to July 2008 incorporated herein)

1. CONSTITUTION

There shall be constituted a General Council of the Bar of South Africa (hereinafter referred to as “the Council”).

2. OBJECTS

(a) To consider, promote and deal with all matters concerning the teaching and practice of the law and the administration of justice.

(b) To deal with all matters affecting the profession and to take action thereon.

(c) To uphold the interests of advocates in South Africa.

(d) To act, within the profession of advocacy, as an agent of change in post-apartheid South Africa and to strive towards the ideal of non-racialism and non-sexism in an open society.

3. COMPOSITION

(a) The Constituent Bars of the General Council of the Bar are the following:

• The Cape Bar;
• The Society of Advocates of KwaZulu-Natal;
• The Pretoria Society of Advocates;
• The Society of Advocates (Witwatersrand Local Division);
• The Free State Society of Advocates;
• The Eastern Cape Society of Advocates;
• The Society of Advocates Transkei;
• The Bhisho Society of Advocates;
• The North West Bar Association;
• The Northern Cape Society of Advocates.

(b) The Constituent Bars shall be represented in the Council by delegates chosen by themselves as follows:

• The Cape Bar - four delegates;
• The Society of Advocates of KwaZulu-Natal - four delegates;
• The Pretoria Society of Advocates - four delegates;
• The Society of Advocates (Witwatersrand Local Division) - four delegates;
• The Free State Society of Advocates - two delegates;
• The Eastern Cape Society of Advocates - three delegates;
• The Society of Advocates Transkei - two delegates;
• The Bhisho Society of Advocates - one delegate;
• The North West Bar Association - one delegate;
• The Northern Cape Society of Advocates - one delegate.

(c) Each Constituent Bar shall, in selecting delegates to meetings of the Council, seek to ensure that it is appropriately represented with particular reference to race and gender, and in the case of Bars entitled to be represented by two or more delegates, shall whenever possible ensure that not less than half of its delegates are delegates nominated by the AFT Branch of those Bars.

(d) The Council of every Constituent Bar shall notify the executive officer of the General Council of the Bar of the names of its delegates in advance of every meeting of the Council.

(e) The Council shall consist of:

(i) delegates of the Constituent Bars as hereinbefore provided;

(ii) an executive consisting of:

(aa) a Chair;
(bb) a Deputy Chair;
(cc) a Vice Chair;
(dd) an honorary secretary
(ee) an assistant honorary secretary;
(ff) such further numbers of members as may be decided by resolution from time to time;

provided that not less than half of the executive is to comprise delegates nominated by Advocates for Transformation (AFT).

(iii) (aa) the Chair of the National Bar Examination Board ex officio;

(bb) the outgoing Chair of the Council who by virtue of occupying that office, remains an office-bearer of the Council for a period of one year after the expiry of his/or her term of office.

(iv) representatives of any Associate Bar admitted to membership in terms of clause 6(A).

(f) The provisions of sub-clause 3(c) and the proviso to sub-clause 3(e)(ii) shall remain in force until the 2009 annual general meeting of the Council.

4. OFFICIALS

(a) The Council may from time to time elect an honorary president and such honorary vice-presidents as it may determine.

(b) The Council shall annually from practising members of the Constituent Bars elect the members of the Executive as provided for in clause 3(e)(i) and (ii).

(c) During the absence or incapacity of the Chair, the Deputy Chair or the Vice Chair, or all of them, a member of the Executive, nominated by the Chair, the Deputy Chair or the Vice Chair as the case may be, shall act as Chair of the Council.

5. MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL

(a) The headquarters of the Council shall be in such a place as the Council for the time being shall decide.

(b) Meetings shall be at such times and places as the Chair shall decide.

(c) A quorum for a meeting shall be a majority of the number of members of the Council for the time being.

(d) Save where otherwise provided in this constitution, decisions of the Council shall be taken by a majority of votes of the Council. The Chair shall have a casting as well as a deliberative vote.

6. POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE COUNCIL

(a) The Council shall have no jurisdiction over any constituent Bar or its members except to the extent provided for in the three succeeding sub-sections.

(b)The Council shall have the power to:

(i) Hear and decide appeals by members of constituent Bars from decisions of those Bars in any disciplinary proceedings in respect of those members save where the decision concerned is one to approach the Supreme Court to take disciplinary proceedings against that member;

(ii) Hear and decide appeals from constituent Bars in connection with any investigation into a member’s fee.

(iii) Hear and decide any matter in respect of which provision is made for the Council’s jurisdiction in the constitution of any constituent Bar, or when such a hearing and decision are requested by a majority vote of the members of a Bar.

(c) (i) The appeal provided for in paragraph (b)(i) shall be heard by a committee consisting of at least three advocates, who are senior members of any of the constituent Bars, appointed by the Chair in consultation with the Deputy and Vice-Chairs, provided that no member of such committee shall be a member or associate member of the constituent Bar of which the appellant is a member.

(ii) The appeal provided for in (b)(ii) above shall be heard by a committee consisting of:

(a) Two senior counsel, which may include the Chair, appointed by the Chair, or in his absence, the Deputy Chair of the Council, or in his absence, the Vice Chair of the Council; and

(b) Two attorneys appointed by the President of the Law Society of South Africa.

(iii) bis The hearing in terms of clause (c)(iii) shall be heard by the Council unless the Chair is of the opinion that the matter may be heard by a committee as contemplated in paragraph (c)(i) and the chairman of the Bar Council concerned consents thereto.

(iv) In all cases the Chair shall appoint one of the members as chairman of the said committee and a secretary.

(d) (i) The committee thus appointed determines the procedure to be followed and makes it known to the parties.

(ii) The parties to the appeal shall be entitled to representation by an advocate or advocates or by an attorney or attorneys or by both.

(iii) The committee may, together with any ruling given in an appeal, make any order in regard to costs which in the circumstances may be just and equitable.

(e) The Council may on its own initiative, or whenever requested by a constituent Bar to do so, recommend rules of professional etiquette and practice for adoption by all constituent Bars or a constituent Bar.

(f) The Council may:

(i) examine and take appropriate action in regard to legislation and the administration of justice;

(ii) formulate evidence for submission to government or provincial commissions or committees or other bodies;

(iii) express its opinion in such quarters as it deems from time to time to be desirable;

(iv) make or join in making representations to ministers or other persons or bodies on matters relating to the profession or members thereof;

(v) refer to any constituent Bar any matter concerning the interests or conduct of any member or members thereof;

(vi) appoint such committees or sub-committees and employees as it may consider necessary from time to time, with power to co-opt or delegate to any constituent Bar the power to appoint a committee or sub-committee with such powers and functions as the Council may determine; or

(vii) generally take such steps as it deems necessary to promote its objects.

(g) The Council shall be a legal persona independent of the Bars and their representatives from which it is constituted and may, subject to the provisions of this constitution:

(i) acquire, encumber or realize assets;

(ii) enter into contracts in its own name, and

(iii) act as a plaintiff or an applicant or be cited as a defendant or respondent.

6A. ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP

(a) The Council may, by a resolution adopted unanimously, upon the recommendation of the Chair, invite a Bar, which is not a constituent Bar of a Division of the High Court of South Africa, to be admitted as an Associate Bar of the Council.

(b) The recommendation of the chair shall, together with a report, as contemplated by sub-clause (iii) hereof, be tabled together with the resolution, which report shall be signed by the chair and the representatives of at least two constituent Bars.

(c) The chair shall cause a report to be prepared, to which shall be annexed the constitution of the Bar, the code of ethics and conduct, a list of individual members, and in which report it is stated that signatories have satisfied themselves that the Bar to which an invitation to become an associate member should be extended –

(i) adheres to a written code of ethics and conduct that is the same or similar to that of the Council and that the Bar, if invited, will adopt as binding on itself, the code of the Council;

(ii) adheres to the Referral principle;

(iii) is a genuinely independent institution, de facto and de jure, free of state control or influence and subscribes unreservedly to the principle of the rule of law and an independent judiciary;

(iv) is composed of practitioners whose academic qualifications are on a par with the academic qualifications required to practice law as an individual member of a constituent Bar of the Council;

(v) provides a systematic induction to the practice of advocacy consistent with and approximating to the practice of the Council’s pupillage and advocacy training schemes;

(vi) is financially and organisationally sound;

(vii) if admitted to associate membership, no interest of the Council or of a constituent Bar would thereby be materially prejudiced.

(d) A Bar that accepts an invitation to be admitted as an Associate Bar of the Council shall in writing, declare that it accepts such associate membership on terms that oblige it to subscribe to the constitution of theCouncil and to continue to comply with the requirements set out in clause 3(a) to (g) above, and such Associate Bar upon admission on a date to be determined by the Council enjoy such rights and obligations of a constituent member as set out therein; save only, that a representative of an associate Bar shall not be vested with a vote.

7. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

(a) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Council in accordance with the provisions of clause 3(e)(ii).

(b) The executive committee shall meet at such time and place as the Chair shall decide.

(c) A quorum of a meeting of the executive committee shall be two thirds of its members.

(d) The executive committee shall be entitled to exercise all the powers and functions of the Council.

(e) The executive committee shall be entitled to exercise all the powers and functions of the Council.

(f) Decisions of the executive committee shall be by majority vote provided that, to the extent that it is required by any constituent Bar, it shall be noted in any subsequent statement to the press or otherwise be made known that the decision is a majority decision and stating which Bars supported the decision and which did not.

If at any time the Chair or Acting Chair of the Council is of the opinion that a situation of sufficient urgency has arisen, he shall be entitled to make a decision by consent of the majority of chairmen or acting chairmen of the Bar Councils of all constituent Bars and such decisions shall constitute a decision of the Council notwithstanding the provision of clause 8(a)(iii) hereof.

8. DECISIONS OF THE COUNCIL

(a) Decisions of the Council may be validly taken in any one of the following ways:

(i) by resolution of the Council in terms of clause 5 supra;

(ii) by resolution of the executive meeting in terms of clause 7 supra;

(iii) by consent of all constituent Bars.

(b) It shall be within the discretion of the Chair to determine the manner in which any matter requiring the decision of the Council shall be dealt with. In particular and without derogating from the aforegoing, he shall be entitled:

(i) to refer such matter for comment or report to any committee or sub-committee of the Council, to any constituent Bar or member thereof.

(ii) to circulate such matter, with or without comment or recommendation, to the constituent Bars for their information or consideration; or

(iii) to place such matter on the agenda of a meeting of the Council or the executive committee.

9. BYE–LAWS

(a) The Council may from time to time pass bye-laws and regulations governing its procedure.

(b) The two official languages are recognised as media communication for the Council and communications shall be replied to by the Council in the language in which they are couched.

(c) All notices, regulations, rules and bye–laws shall be in both official languages and the same applies to the minutes unless the Council otherwise decides.

10. FINANCE

(a) The finances of the Council shall be provided by the constituent Bars.

(b) At each Annual General Meeting the Council shall determine the membership subscription payable by the constituent Bars by determining the monthly subscription payable by each of the members of the constituent Bars. The Council may, in its discretion, determine different amounts for such differing categories of individual member as it may decide.

(c) As it is the constituent Bar (and not the individual member of that Bar) which is the member of the General Council of the Bar, it is the responsibility of the constituent Bars to contribute to the finances of the Council.

(d) By no later than the 15th of each month each of the constituent Bars shall forward to the secretariat a schedule reflecting the status of its individual membership as at the end of the previous month divided into the different categories as determined in sub-paragraph (b) above together with that constituent Bar's payment of its membership subscription for that month.

(e) The constituent Bar shall not be entitled to withhold payment of the whole or any portion of its membership subscription for any reason including the non–payment to it by its individual members.

(f) A banking account (or accounts) shall be opened in the name of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa and shall be operated upon as directed by the Council from time to time.

(g) A constituent Bar which has not complied with all of its obligations in terms of paragraph 10 shall not be entitled to vote on or take part in the deliberations on any matter serving before Council or the Executive Committee.

11. LIST OF MEMBERS OF CONSTITUENT BARS

Each constituent Bar shall annually, not later than the 15th May, provide the GCB secretariat with a list of its members as at 30th April of that year, together with the dates of admission and in the case of senior counsel with the date of their letters patent. Such list shall be the basis of representation on the Council and contributions to the Council.

12. AMENDMENTS

Amendments to this constitution may be made by a majority of votes of the Council, provided that, not less than 3 (three) months notice of the terms of the proposed amendment shall have been given to each constituent Bar; provided further that amendments to clauses 2(a), 6(a), 6(b) and 6(e) shall require the consent of all constituent Bars.

13. OPERATION

This constitution shall come into operation on 26 JULY 1980.