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Cash Crunch for SA Human Rights Lawyers

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Cash Crunch for SA Human Rights Lawyers SUNDAY TIMES, January 26 1992 7 Cash crunch for SA human rights lawyers CASH-strapped South African human rights lawyers are considering legal action against the defunct London-based International Defence and Aid Fund for outstanding debts totalling millions of rands. Stompie And some have called on the ANC to apply pressure on Idaf’s trustees to pay up. The anti-apartheid organisation — the major source of income for many South African human rights lawyers over the past 30 years — closed in April last year, attorney leaving hundreds of lawyers with unpaid accounts. A new organisation, the South African Legal Defence Fund (Saldef), has been established in South Africa to replace Idaf, but By DAWN BARKHUIZEN pulls out is not liable for the old By CATHY STAGG debts. cases when clients could Thompson and Haysom not pay for themselves, has represented clients in AN attorney representing Attorneys, who asked the “coach” of the Mmideia not to be identified lest according to a partner, Mr some of South Africa’s Norman Manoim. major treason trials, in­ United Football Club, Jerry they lost all chance of Richardson, has withdrawn recovering their money, “Naturally we hope we cluding the case against can continue this sort of Moses Mayekiso and other from the case because of a said they had disbanded lack of funds. partnerships, cut down work, but much depends on Alexandra township Attorney Kathleen staff, refused new human how much money Saldef leaders in 1987, and Satchwell confirmed she rights cases and diversified can raise and how much Eastern Cape district was no longer representing into criminal and civil local business will contrib­ surgeon Wendy Orr, who Richardson, 43, who has work. Some attorneys are ute,” he said. brought an interdict to stop been on death row since owed as much as R600 000. One of the few firms detainees from being as­ August 1990. He was con­ A well-known Johannes­ with a flourishing human saulted. victed for his part in the burg firm, Priscilla Jana rights department is Mallinick, Ress, Rich­ murder and kidnapping of and Associates, reportedly Deneys Reitz. The depart­ man and Closenberg has Stompie Seipei. owes advocates R187 385 ment is funded by the part­ frequently represented the Miss Satchwell said she had withdrawn as Richard­ and is on the verge of ners themselves. End Conscription Cam­ Mr John Smith, general paign. son’s attorney last Thurs­ closing. day after approaching Cape Town human secretary of the National Association of Democratic Petition several organisations and rights attorneys Mallinick, being told there were no Ress, Richman and Closen- Lawyers, said: “It appears Bell Dewar and Hall that Idafs donors, due to acted for certain accused funds. berg closed their public She said she had intended affairs sector three months certain ideas about South in the Delmas treason trial Africa, simply did not pay and for Baragwanath doc­ to use the funds to brief an ago. advocate to argue Richard­ up at the end. tors when the authorities son’s appeal. The state will Tragedy “Idaf has offered some refused to renew their con- now appoint a pro deo lawyers proportional set­ tracts after they had Other leading law firms advocate. tlements, others nothing. signed a petition against such as Bell, Dewar and Miss Satchwell expects a As a result hundreds of conditions at the hospital. Hall have reduced staff in lack of funds will also lawyers here have been Former Idaf trustees their public affairs depart­ affect the representation of left with bills totalling could not be reached for Xoliswa Falati and John ment. millions. Some may have comment. Spokesmen for Advocates said they Morgan, each sentenced to to close.” Saldef and the ANC were six years’ jail for their part were demanding money up In the past Cheadle, also unavailable. in Stompie case. front before accepting cer­ tain briefs. A Johannesburg advo­ cate who expects to write off thousands of rands said alongside the boat from which Ron and Val Taylor made their dives he was now turning down ANNE MARGARET GOWING ; the arching superior to you in its own Mr Ferreira’s unit has human rights cases. • Will MRS A M GOWING, the widow of the late knashing of domain. been attempting to tag “One would like to do the £y were just “The only dread one them with identification work, but one’s fees would MICHAEL ROBERT GOWING, formerly of Zimbabwe, about the feels is also primitive: the numbers for research pur­ be at risk. The tragedy is who died on 4th April 1981, please contact David Knott of Ivers were of fear of being eaten alive. poses for the past few that there remains a dire The Board of Executors without delay. All species fear being months with little success need for this kind of work.” faylor: “The eaten and, in the water, you — but they finally struck Because it focuses • The proceeds of certain life assurance policies have been ticountered a know that it can eat you if paydirt when the Taylors largely on labour matters, ny hair stood it wants to.” joined the party. Cheadle Thompson and received. I a primitive South Africa is the only Over four-and-a-half Haysom has not been as . That’s what country in the world to pro- days they worked with a hard hit as the smaller • THE BOARD OF EXECUTORS you come tect the Great White and it group of approximately 23 human rights-oriented PO Box 785442 — Telephone (011)884-6360 nal of this is an offence to catch or sharks off Dyer Island. practices. Sandton 2146 235802 — awe in hunt the animals in local They logged 350 sight­ But it, too, has had to of something waters. ings and tagged 10 sharks. turn down human rights n CURRENT AFFAIRS rest assured that no political arrangement in evicting their black labour tenants from land future or acquisition of land now will take they have occupied for generations. place without being linked to compensation. The latest example of these evictions, Future arrangements will have to carry the which are taking place in Natal and the consent of most, if not all, political actors, it Transvaal, concerns about 80 people in Piet says, adding that the main political actors Retief, in south-eastern Transvaal. must realise that the land question is a pow­ The group recently approached the Legal der keg that has to be tackled without de­ Resources Centre (LRC) to oppose the “trekpasses” (eviction notices) which had lay. ■ been served on them. They will have to move Tenant labourers . .. trekpasses on the by the end of the month unless someone increase t h e la w intervenes. The matter could be raised by the ANC at more than a contract,” the LRC says. “It is a The costs of reform Codesa, says Derek Hanekom, head of the way of life — rural hardships notwithstand­ ANC’s land commission. “Until interim ing. Labour tenants are farmers and they live A well-known Johannesburg firm of attor­ measures are put in place, people with strong close to the land. Evictions have devastating neys, which specialised in human rights mat­ claims to the land — according to criteria we social consequences. The tenants face the ters,’is on the verge of closing after govern­ consider important — are still falling victim loss of their family homes, their fields, secur­ ity and their accumulated wealth.” ment’s decision to release political prisoners to apartheid.” and unban various organisations. This coin­ Hanekom, who sees this development in The LRC, which has acted for 70 families in the 18 months from 1990 to last July, says cides with the financial crisis facing a Lon- the context of government’s rejection of his­ don-based anti-apartheid organisation, the torical claims in its White Paper last year, the irony of the tenants using the courts is that certain legal requirements laid down in International Defence & Aid Fund (IDAF), believes the issue should be handled by a an erstwhile major financial backer in hu­ ^ k c ia l land claims court. He describes gov- the process are now being used against them. man rights trials in SA. ^rtim ent’s newly appointed Advisory Com­ In particular, there is the required three- Johannesburg attorney Priscilla Jana & mission on Land Allocation as a toothless month notice period, which a number of judgments have held to be reasonable. As a Associates owes R187 385 to advocates who body which moves very slowly. had been briefed by the firm. The debt was He says the people who have been evicted result — and following advice put out by the to have been liquidated by a London law still have a strong claim on the land; evicting SA Agricultural Union (SAAU) on how to legally evict tenants — most farmers are now firm, Penningtons, on behalf of the IDAF, them only compounds the “mess” that will which is in the throes of a serious and deep­ have to be untangled — a reference to forced issuing three-month trekpasses, thereby taking away one of the few legal grounds on ening financial crisis. removals under years of apartheid. which the removal of labour tenants has been The IDAF is having great difficulty in Labour tenancy is an old system whereby honouring its financial commitments. Jana people, by working for the landowner, secure staved off.” (The FM was unable to get comment from the SAAU before going to went so far as to criticise the former patron: occupancy of land and the right to farm it. “The IDAF is in tremendous financial diffi­ The LRC says the contract is made between press).
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