https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Africa
Africa
africa
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Equal before the law: South African courts commemorate 100 years of women in the legal profession

Close

Embed Video

Equal before the law: South African courts commemorate 100 years of women in the legal profession

Legal scales

25th April 2023

By: News24Wire

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Several courts in South Africa will have ceremonial sittings on Tuesday to commemorate 100 years of women in law.

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria and Johannesburg High Courts will hold ceremonial sittings to commemorate the centenary of the Women Legal Practice Act of 1923. Similar programmes will take place in KwaZulu-Natal and the North West.

Advertisement

Prior to the Act, women were not considered to be "'persons' who could be admitted to legal practice", spokesperson in the Office of the Chief Justice, Lusanda Ntuli, said.

The Act opened the door for women by decreeing that: "Women shall be entitled to be admitted to practice and to be enrolled as advocates, attorneys, notaries public or conveyancers in any province of the union, subject to the same terms and conditions [that] apply to men…"

Advertisement

"It did not take long for women to take active steps to become legal practitioners. The first woman to be admitted as an advocate in South Africa was Irene Geffen in 1923. The first woman attorney was Constance Mary Hall in 1926. For historic apartheid reasons, it took longer for black women to join the ranks, with Desiree Finca being enrolled as the first black woman attorney in 1967," Ntuli said.

Finca will be among the special guests at the Gauteng commemoration. The occasion will be hosted in collaboration with the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges and the 100More Campaign.

"The ceremonial sittings will bring together women from legal practice, legal institutions, and the judiciary to honour these pioneering women, to reflect on the journey of women in the legal profession and to reaffirm our commitment as a collective to promote the constitutional rights of equality and human dignity," Ntuli said.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za