Retired Supreme Court judge Dave Smuts and legal stakeholders have warned that Namibia’s Justice Training Centre (JIC) is failing to prepare graduates for practical court work.
The JTC is controlled by the Board for Legal Education, which falls under the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations and is chaired by chief justice Peter Shivute.
Smuts says his experience on the bench is that some lawyers who have completed the JTC programme were not prepared for legal practice.
“I can tell you many of us on the bench feel the JTC is not working.
A lot of lawyers who have gone through the JTC, I feel, when they come to court, are not properly trained,” Smuts said during a recent public lecture at the University of Namibia (Unam).
He said law degrees should provide students with an academic foundation, while the JTC should equip graduates with the practical and procedural skills needed to practise law.
“I would like to have a better training system in place, and one which really tries to secure proper practical training for lawyers,” he said.
He said some lecturers are practising legal professionals with other work commitments, which could affect the time they spend with students.Smuts believes the training system needs reform.
“I think the system needs to be revamped. But I don’t have an answer as to how,” he said.
Smuts said he has previously raised the need for reform with the leadership of the board for legal education and believes the matter is receiving attention.
Unam took over the administration of all JTC examinations in 2018 after the university’s pro-vice chancellor for education said the centre’s handling of examinations was not up to standard.
The decision followed an incident in which some law students failed to sit for legal drafting examinations required to determine whether they could be admitted as legal practitioners.
Although the centre is independent of Unam, it uses the university’s lecturers and facilities.
Students raised concerns about the centre again earlier this year.
A law student who declined to be named for fear of victimisation told The Namibian those concerns remain unresolved.
“The sentiments are even worse. It’s not the training per se that is inadequate; it’s basically the maladministration of the JTC,” he said.
He said students are approaching their October and November examinations without receiving results for some assignments and tests completed in June and July.
The student also raised concerns about the limited period during which candidates have a right of appearance in court.
“If you do not get a law firm by then, your right of appearance basically expires.
That means you cannot go to court and get that experience of arguing a case or doing a bail or plea,” he said.
He said students want the right-of-appearance period to start when a candidate secures placement at a law firm, because candidates take different lengths of time to find placements.
Another student, Beatha Nembungu, says the JTC does not provide enough practical experience to prepare students for the workplace.
“It’s not sufficient, because it’s still very much theory work. You get to practise only when you are in practice,” she says.
Nembungu says students may understand what they are taught in theory but have limited opportunities to apply those skills repeatedly before entering practice.
Lawyer Uno Katjipuka says concerns about how adequately the JTC prepares graduates for legal practice have existed for years.
“Generally speaking, the quality of newly admitted legal practitioners seems to have deteriorated,” she said.
Katjipuka says problems with the JTC programme may be partly responsible, but practical training under experienced lawyers and personal responsibility should also be considered.
She says candidates must take responsibility for their training and put in the time and work required.
She called for the board for legal education to receive enough resources to complete its review of the programme and introduce changes.
Questions sent to Unam’s faculty of commerce, management and law, under which the JTC resides, were not answered by the time of publication.
