Gauteng High Court upholds LPC clearing of law firm recruitment policy

What the court decided

The court found that the recruitment policy of Webber Wentzel which restricted its candidate attorney intake to citizens for a limited period amounted to permissible affirmative action in the context of the LPC’s investigation. The review application was brought by the Asylum Seeker Refugee and Migrant Coalition and its director, Muchengezi Hiwacha, against the LPC’s dismissal of their complaint.

Background to the dispute

The complaint before the LPC arose after Webber Wentzel changed its recruitment policy to exclude permanent residents. The firm said the change was made to comply with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act. The policy was introduced in 2018 and later relaxed in 2020, according to the court record.

Plaintiffs argued the change constituted unfair discrimination and that the LPC’s dismissal of the complaint against Webber Wentzel and attorney Alisdair Lawson was irrational and procedurally unfair. They contended the firm had excluded permanent residents for risk-management reasons rather than legitimate affirmative action aims.

Court’s reasoning

The court emphasised that the review was limited to whether the LPC acted lawfully in dismissing the complaint, not whether the recruitment policy itself was constitutionally valid. It found the LPC’s investigating committee had conducted an adequate inquiry and reached a rational decision.

The judgment noted two facts the court relied on: the recruitment policy was time-limited (2018–2020), and it was narrowly tailored to a single recruitment programme at one law firm. The court also observed that permanent residents enjoy, “in the main, the same rights as South African citizens,” and found the policy did not amount to excluding permanent residents from the legal profession as a whole.

Questions left open

Although the court dismissed the review application, it acknowledged that broader constitutional questions remain unresolved about the extent to which permanent residents may be excluded from employment opportunities under affirmative action measures by private employers. The judgment does not foreclose future litigation on those constitutional issues.

Contact

The original report lists an author contact: [email protected].