Dearth of State briefing; death of black legal practice:
The South African Constitution is hailed as one of the best in the world. Yet among those who praise it, fidelity is often limited to provisions that do not significantly alter the economic architecture inherited from an unjust, unequal past.
One of the most important provisions is the right to equality in the Bill of Rights. This right underpins the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and related policies. Those who reject broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) in effect reject the right to equality for black people, even if this is rarely stated explicitly.
Instead, the argument is framed as: “We support transformation but …” — and what follows the “but” usually negates what came before it. This reflects a troubling comfort with economic and institutional discrimination and the inequality that continues to define South Africa. It is not simply a passive legacy; it is defended and reinforced by resistance to transformation.
The legal sector is no different. Recognition of this inequality led to the development of the BEE legal sector code of good practice, gazetted on 20 September 2024 by trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau. The inaugural Legal Practice Council (LPC), chaired by Kathleen Dlepu, played a key role in facilitating the code.
Although there has been some progress, transformation in the legal profession remains insufficient. Black attorneys and advocates face two main challenges.
The first is the lack of a sustainable flow of quality legal work to enable them not only to survive but to flourish. This stems from discriminatory procurement practices in the private sector and inconsistent briefing practices by the state.
The irony is that black legal practitioners study at the same universities as their white counterparts, obtain the same LLB degrees, complete the same candidate attorney training or pupillage and write the same LPC admission examinations. Once admitted, the only difference is race.
Discriminatory procurement practices keep black law firms small, while many black advocates are forced to leave the Bar. LPC statistics for 2024 show that the largest majority white-owned law firm has 396 partners, compared with 18 in the largest black-owned firm.
At the Bar, figures from the Johannesburg Society of Advocates show that, over the past five years, 406 advocates left, 66% of whom were black. More starkly, black junior advocates accounted for 85% of those who left within their first four years.
To address this, the legal sector code requires that 70% of legal work outsourced by the state be allocated to black attorneys and advocates in the first two years, rising to 80% by year five.
To curb high attrition among black advocates, the code also sets briefing targets for medium and large law firms: in the first two years, 40% of the total annual fee expenditure on advocates must go to black advocates, with 30% allocated to black women advocates.
The second challenge is the lack of representation of black attorneys in ownership structures of large, majority white-owned firms. LPC data shows that, on average, 72% of equity partners or directors in these firms are white, compared with 28% who are black.
These firms perform better at associate level, where 59% are black. The code sets targets of 30% black equity partners or directors in the first two years, including 15% black women, rising to 50% and 25% respectively by year five.
The Legal Sector Charter Council, established under the code, began operating in March 2025. Its role is to monitor compliance and guide stakeholders. In its first year, it conducted outreach and issued guidance and clarification notices. Its engagements indicate broad support for the code and a willingness among most stakeholders to comply.
The council is also finalising memorandums of understanding with several organs of state.
South Africa faces a clear choice: retain the economic and institutional architecture inherited from apartheid or pursue the path towards a more equal society as required by the Constitution.
For the legal profession, the legal sector code provides a roadmap for that journey.
Christine Qunta is the chairperson of the Legal Sector Charter Council.
Nanette is going to keep showing up:
Nanette is at a salon in Joburg’s Braamfontein neighbourhood when she and I get on a call to discuss her music and upcoming plans on a Tuesday morning.
With a new single out, a deluxe edition of her last album due for release and a career milestone performance only a few days away, the 24-year-old R&B singer has a lot going on.
On this particular morning she’s elected to do a bit of multitasking, giving an interview while getting her hair done, fielding questions on the ins and outs of being a rising star while people chat in the background.
This weekend she’s opening for Grammy Award-winning British sensation Ella Mai at the GrandWest Grand Arena in Cape Town, a moment made all the more significant because it will be her first time performing in an arena.
“Honestly, it was really shocking,” she says of being invited to join the show’s line-up by the event promoter.
“It was really exciting when I heard because the line-up had been decided but it was a case of people having genuinely advocated for me to be on more R&B line-ups. And I’m very grateful for that advocacy because it worked.”
Other supporting acts include Sjava, Nasty C, Zee Nxumalo, Scorpion Kings, Uncle Waffles and Oscar Mbo.
Nanette Sphesihle Nobethu Mbili Jolobe has come a long way from Durban where she was born and grew up listening to the R&B legends that would come to influence her later sound like Brandy, Janet Jackson and Destiny’s Child.
“The list is really endless but I spent most of my formative years listening to very soul and gospel/jazz-influenced music,” she says while also mentioning Brenda Fassie, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela among that formative soundtrack.
The smooth R&B sound she’s become known for now wears its ’90s influences on its sleeve but it also has the perspective and vulnerability to make it stick.
Her most recent album, Painfully Happy, was partly shaped by the death of her aunt, a loss that threatened to sour what was otherwise a hopeful and exciting period of her life.
“I wanted to make an album that spoke to how success and joy can coexist with things like grief and pain,” she says.
“And so the whole time while I was going through what I was going through, it just felt like a lot of painfully happy moments. That name sort of stuck. I was reflecting on life and how things really aren’t linear, how sometimes things can be going great and terrible at the same time.”
Next month she’s releasing the deluxe edition of the album with five new songs to add to the original 12. One of them is Baggage, recently released as a single in anticipation of the deluxe release.
Over an infectious baseline by Grammy Award-winning producer Andre Harris, Nanette delivers a soundtrack for letting go of what holds us back. With lines like “A hundred motherf*****s woulda told me I’m the best/ A hundred motherf*****s wouldn’t make me so depressed”, she turns anger into irreverent R&B poetry.
But as with any singer-songwriter admired for the vulnerability of their lyrics, there’s the ever-present question of what to keep for herself and what to share with the world, how to maintain a private self while being a public figure.
“Because I leave it all in the music and my music is very candid, I don’t like to share too much of my personal life,” Nanette says.
“That’s how I try to maintain the balance. Even when, for instance, I go to podcasts and they ask me who I’m dating or who I’m sleeping with, I’m always just like: If you really want to know, you’ll listen to the music, because there’s nothing I don’t talk about in the music. There’s nothing I’m not candid about in the music.
“Obviously, I don’t want my life to become one big gossip page where I have to tell people the names of people I’m messing with or who I’m beefing with.”
“I feel like I try to keep that for the music and I hope that the listeners can understand that. That’s just the type of person I am. I don’t want to conflate my personal life with my art because I’m a very shy, private person. I like to be in my home watching anime and just chilling.
“Most of the honesty and the candidness and the very interpersonal parts of me, I put them in the music and then I can keep a bit of what’s my life to myself.”
Released last year, Painfully Happy was her third album after The Waiting Room (2024)
and Bad Weather (2002). While always sticking close to her R&B foundation, Nanette has experimented with EDM, rap and amapiano featuring artists like Nasty C, Major League DJz, Zwayetoven, Tellaman and Blxckie.
Then there’s also the two tracks from Kelvin Momo’s album Amukelani — Fool Me and Imfula — she was featured on, which both charted at No 1 on Spotify, YouTube Trending and Apple Music charts.
But the main ambition is to become an international act. Sharing a stage with Ella Mai this Sunday feels like a step in the right direction for the young singer.
“I genuinely believe I’ve proved myself to be deserving of these stages,” Nanette says.
“I’m not even trying to toot my own horn but I don’t know how many better performers than myself there are in this country. I leave my whole soul on that stage. And I’ve never received a bad performance review.
“I always walk away with more people wanting to know about my music. And that’s the whole point. I come from a stage background and I think that the stage is such a spiritual place that maybe a lot of people don’t think about and don’t even care to think about.
“When I step on that stage, I don’t have it in me to disrespect the stage and that means I don’t have it in me to disrespect the audience either. I always tell myself: “Even if I had what I believe is a bad show, it’s 10 times better than what someone calls their best show.”
It’s that level of self-confidence that’s pushed her to where she is today, climbing the charts and working with some of the most talented artists and producers in the music industry, all before she celebrates her 25th birthday.
As her star rises, Nanette says she wants to be a consistent artist who remains true to herself. What does consistency look like for a rising R&B star in Mzansi’s crazy music scene?
“Consistency looks like never stopping yourself from learning. If you’re always willing to learn from other people or from other experiences, then there’s always room for more growth because you’ve never told yourself that you’ve reached your plateau or your ceiling. Beyond that, I feel like consistency just looks like showing up, even when you’re not in the mood for it.
“Showing up even when you don’t want to. It’s a whole lot of showing up. Even when people don’t see that you’re doing what you need to. A lot of the time we want to show up and have people see that but often no one’s going to give you the credit for still showing up on your worst day. But you still have to do it.”
Show up at GrandWest Grand Arena in Cape Town to see Nanette live on April 26.
How IDC breached own governance:
A senior executive alleged to wield significant authority at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and his colleague facing charges of financial misconduct played a key role in ensuring that Tinley Leisure Women (TLWI) Investments, a questionable black empowerment consortium got a slice of the R2.1 billion Tinley Leisure Club Med project.
Bongani Miya, the IDC Divisional Executive for Agro-Industries and Services Sectors and Ken Ogwang, a senior deal maker who has since been dismissed, allegedly played critical roles in ensuring that TLWI was parachuted late into the transaction.
An audit report commissioned by the IDC confirms that its R130 million financial support to TLWI to acquire a 14% BEE equity in the Tinley Leisure Club Med project was tabled before the board audit committee (BIC) for review, where questions regarding the composition of the empowerment consortia, potential conflict of interest and the inclusion of a domestic politically exposed person (DPEP) were flagged.
A project of the Tinley Club Med size creates opportunities for organisations like the IDC to identify and provide finance to rural based community trusts and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) consortia yet the IDC allegedly parachuted TLWI which is a narrow based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) group made of five individuals as its empowerment partners in this project.
Did the IDC flout its own governance processes to create room for TLWI? Pressed to explain how it chose TLWI as its preferred empowerment partner, the IDC proffered vague explanations around the adequacy of its governance processes as a basis for its decisions.
Zibusiso Kganyago, the spouse of the Reserve Bank Governor, is the biggest shareholder in TLWI with a 75% stake with the remainder shared among Mpho Hlahla, Nomagugu Manci and Thobile Ngcobo.
According to findings of the audit report, the identity of the members of the TLWI consortium and aspects of the DPEP relationship were not fully disclosed to relevant approval committees at the IDC in the initial submission of the application for finance and required further clarification during subsequent committee deliberations.
Further to these concerns, compliance documentation classified this transaction as carrying an elevated money-laundering, terrorism-financing and reputational risk to the IDC.
Despite the IDC’s stone cold attempt to answer specific questions, serious questions remain unanswered.
How did they ignore concerns and warnings raised by their own internal audit department regarding Ogwang’s role in this transaction and why did they disregard the risks and concerns flagged by relevant committees? Asked for comment on his role in the transaction, Miya deferred specific questions to his employer but confirmed that this matter was subject of a board inquiry.
“The matter was the subject of a board inquiry and the board has been provided with a report that addresses all the questions that have been raised,” said Miya, who advised us to engage him through the IDC’s official communication channels.
Ogwang could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls to his phone. However, the revelations of a board-level enquiry continue to raise further governance concerns on how the state-owned financier chose TLWI as its empowerment partner in the R2.1 billion tourism development on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast, which is backed by the IDC alongside Absa and African Bank.
In response to our questions regarding several governance lapses identified in the transaction by its committees, the IDC did not respond to specific questions on the scope, timing or findings of any such inquiry, nor whether any review had been undertaken following concerns raised on the risks posed by TLWI which was selected as the empowerment partner.
As previously reported by the Mail & Guardian, internal documentation shows that the deal was considered by the IDC’s Board Investment Committee and referred to the Board Social and Ethics Committee after concerns were raised about governance processes, due diligence and the structuring of the B-BBEE component.
These concerns included the timing of the introduction of the B-BBEE partner into the consortium and whether sufficient due diligence had been conducted prior to approval.
The IDC has maintained that its investment decisions are guided by established governance and compliance frameworks, but has not publicly addressed the specific issues recorded in its internal processes or explained how they were resolved.
There are also swirling questions around the IDC funding a music concert while the company is closing down companies in distress.
In 2024, the IDC provided R70 million to a concert promotions company involved in staging the Hello Neighbour concert. The investment in this transaction was written off without recovery. The deal team that led this transaction was left off the hook despite an Internal Audit report confirming serious lapses in the due diligence process of this transaction.
A former IDC employee who declined to be named told the Mail & Guardian that the services department was the source for most questionable transactions in the company. The Kivu boat is another example of transactions that fell outside of the IDC mandate but were allegedly pushed at the instigation of Miya.
“It’s like all transactions from that department are structured to fail but deal makers are afraid to make independent decisions for fear of punishment from their bosses.
“There could be many but I know of two heads of department that were dismissed in the past two years for rejecting questionable business applications.
“But the question you ought to ask is, how do these deals even end up at committee stage. Who approves them,” said the source.
The IDC responds
After two weeks of avoiding addressing questions on the Tinley Leisure/Club Med translation, the IDC this week sent us responses through its spokesperson, Tshepo
Ramodibe:
The Industrial Development Corporation recognises the public interest in this project. However, it is important to note that the IDC operates within strict legal, governance and confidentiality frameworks, which limit the extent to which individual roles, internal deliberations and commercially sensitive information can be disclosed publicly. Against that background, the corporation provides clarification:
1. Role in the transaction
The IDC’s role in the Tinley Leisure/Club Med transaction is that of a funding partner and shareholder. The transaction was assessed and supported through the IDC’s standard credit, legal and governance processes and approved funding instruments were implemented through executed legal agreements.
2. Introduction of the broad-based BEE partner
BEE participation formed part of the transaction structure assessed through the IDC’s governance processes and reflected in the final approved and executed funding framework. The IDC does not comment publicly on who introduced specific partners or on private negotiations between consortium members, as these are commercially sensitive and involve third?party confidentiality.
3. Due diligence on the BEE partner
All investment decisions, including BEE participation, are subject to the IDC’s standard due?diligence, credit, legal and governance approval processes, in line with applicable law and IDC policy. Counterparty?specific due?diligence findings are not disclosed publicly.
4. Board?level disclosure and sequencing
We do not provide public commentary on internal board deliberations, records or sequencing. In large project?finance transactions, transaction structures may evolve during negotiations and document finalisation. The IDC’s governance processes are designed to ensure that final approvals and executed legal agreements reflect the definitive transaction structure.
5. Junior loan structure for the 14% BBBEE shareholding
The junior loan structure was designed to facilitate transformation within a large project?financed development while appropriately managing risk through a defined cash?flow and security framework. This approach is a recognised mechanism in large, capital?intensive infrastructure projects and was evaluated and approved as part of the overall transaction structure. The IDC has been a key funder of transformation through similar funding structures for decades.
6. Internal concerns and how they were addressed
As with many complex transactions, implementation matters may arise. Such matters are addressed through the IDC’s established governance, risk and control processes. The IDC does not comment publicly on internal processes.
7. Claims of late partner introduction or procedural breaches
We do not accept the premise that consortium participation or transformation mechanisms were managed outside its governance processes. These aspects were assessed through the IDC’s formal approval and governance structures.
8. Alleged disputes within the consortium
The IDC does not comment on commercial arrangements or any disputes, if any, between private consortium partners. Such matters are governed by contractual agreements.
9. Role in addressing concerns raised by funders or partners
Where concerns arise that affect the IDC’s rights or obligations as a funder or shareholder, they are addressed through established contractual and governance processes, consistent with the IDC’s oversight role.
10. Governance and process
The IDC remains committed to strong governance, accountability and ethical conduct. Where concerns are raised, they are dealt with through established institutional processes, governed by policy and, where appropriate, supported by independent mechanisms. The IDC cannot disclose confidential or commercially sensitive information publicly.
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