The Courts Rule On Private Higher Education Qualifications

The recognition and status of private higher education qualifications have remained somewhat of a grey area for legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners. While the requirements for admission as an attorney include that the candidate concerned has to have satisfied the LLB degree requirements, the exact standard of the LLB, as a requirement, has not necessarily been established. However, in early 2019, the Constitutional Court of South Africa (hereinafter 'the Court') made a ruling in this regard.

The Issue

The matter involved, in principle, the Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd and the Kwa-Zulu Natal Chapter of the Law Society. Although, most if not all public universities and professional law societies were adjoined as interested parties. The application requested that the court a quo's ruling be confirmed insofar as it declared S26(1)(a) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (hereinafter 'the LPA') to be constitutionally invalid.