Right now we are the “watchdogs” of the Rule of Law

Our Thumamina moment as lawyers – right now we are the “watchdogs” of the Rule of Law and should be proud of what we are doing now as lawyers writes Rurik McKaiser to his fellow legal eagles.

Written by Rurik McKaiser, Director, Rurik McKaiser Attorneys for LexisNexis South Africa.

[Durban, 07 April 2020]

Dear Fellow Legal Eagles,

Please, let us be responsible as Legal Eagles. Right now, we are the "watchdogs" of The Rule of Law. As officers of the Court, we have signed up for this, and we need to honour the law, specifically the prohibition of the spreading of "fake news" – be mindful that it is an offence to spread “fake news” - the entire issue of which is a debate in itself, but not for today.

Let us honour the wonderful spirit of the founder of the Law in the Time of Corona Whatsapp information group, Tracy Lomax, for the magic of what we as lawyers are now doing. Tracy is such an amazing lawyer, an all-round wonderful human being, and a special role-model to me, and I am sure to many of you on this group. Look at what we are doing now as lawyers.

We are collaborating.

We are looking out for each other and our fellow brother and sister citizens.

We are modelling what it means to walk our talk of we are all in this together.

We are respectful of each other.

We are tolerant of each other.

AND, dare I write it here… we are showing each other love and respect!

Right now, this moment is taking me back to yester year… to days gone by that I would much rather forget…  the time that I spent protesting against the “dark regime” and was locked up in a police cell. Those sacrifices – I promise you – were all worth it, by just soaking up the magic of this group, here and now.

AND, to think it took an invisible common enemy like COVID-19, to allow us to live and to demonstrate to all of us, to ourselves, that tata Mandela lives inside of us.

We are living the Mandela-Model in that we are embracing each-other. We are embracing the humanity in each other.

Right now I am proud of being a South African and I am proud of being a lawyer during this crisis!

I don’t know the vast majority of you, AND yet I feel your humanity…

your fear…

your concern…

your tenderness…

and your love.

May I soon be blessed to know you in person.

Thank you for reminding me what it means to be human.

Thank you for making me proud to be South African.

Thank you for allowing me to see a small portion of your souls even though I don’t know you personally, yet.

Thank you for allowing me to see me.

Much love to you all.