Honorary members are elected by the Executive Council who then puts the proposal to the Annual General Meeting, per the NBCSA Constitution.

NBCSA has five honorary members:

1) A.S.van der Spuy S.C. He was a member of the Executive Committee in  1994 and 1995. He was a S.C. since 1964, honorary member IAASA 1998.

Adv Attie Van Der Spuy was one of the founder members of IAASA. Also one of  the first senior counsels  to join IAASA. Attie passed away in 2010 but will be remembered for his good judgments that were reported whilst acting as judge in Venda.

2) M.A. Bulbulia S.C. He was a member of the Executive Committee from 1994 to 1998. He was Vice Chairman from 1996-1998. He was an  Honorary Professor at Law as well as President of the Industrial Court up to 1998. He was awarded Honorary member status of IAASA in  1998. He was the second person of colour in South Africa to sit on an Executive Bar council. (The first was Adv Ike Tholoe, who was vice chair of IAASA in 1994 and 1995.) 

3) Quim De Freitas was an Executive Member from 1995. He was  Secretary and Treasurer from 1996 to 1999. He became an Honorary member in 2003. The case of De Freitas is well known as his case was a test case to see whether advocates get work direct from the streets.  IAASA is forced to abide by the court’s rulings but the debate is not finished. IAASA still maintain:

There was no Roman or Roman Dutch authority at common law requiring the intervention of an attorney when instructed by a client(s).

 The previous decisions in South African Courts elevate the intervention of an attorney between the client and counsel which was a rule of the traditional bar adopted from the British bar by sheer tradition and usage to a rule of law governing the entire profession of advocates including advocates outside the traditional bars.

 This elevation no longer applies since the creation of the new South Africa which under its Constitution allows all citizens to make direct approaches to an advocate or an attorney as “Legal practitioners of its choice”. (Section 35 Constitution, Act 108 of 1996.)

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