Johannesburg – Advocate and Judicial Services Commission (JSC) spokesperson Dumisa Ntsebeza has criticised the government for not employing black advocates, it was reported on Friday.

Ntsebeza said this was driving black advocates out of the profession, The Star newspaper reported.

According to the report, Ntsebeza felt a policy should exist where no white advocate should be briefed by the government if they did not have a black, Indian or coloured junior assisting.

He said government used mainly white law firms and advocates such as David Unterhalter and Jeremy Gauntlett, who were made out to be “superhuman”.

Unterhalter and Gauntlett recently represented the SA National Roads Agency Limited and the Treasury respectively in the case against e-tolling in Gauteng.

Gauntlett was passed over earlier this year by the JSC for a position on the Constitutional Court.

Ntsebeza told the newspaper that many black and women advocates left the profession because of a lack of briefs from the state, which was the biggest consumer of legal services in the country.

He was commenting on a written parliamentary reply from Justice Minister Justice Radebe, who said his department was well on its way to fast-tracking the appointment of black and women judges.

– SAPA