Advocates are trained to resolve complex issues but the Cape Bar has been in turmoil for years over "transformation". Tensions have been simmering since the bar implemented its access to work policy on October 1, which it says is intended to reform briefing practices, which currently are said to favour white advocates.Advocates for Transformation has dismissed the Cape Bar's move and has called for it to be expelled from the General Council of the Bar - and for black advocates to refuse elevation to senior counsel.Tanya Golden, the bar's chairman, hailed the policy as a "progressive transformation initiative"."The adoption and implementation of this policy is an important transformation milestone for the Cape Bar in its vision to achieve a fully transformed bar," she said.But Greg Papier, chairman of Advocates for Transformation, said similar policies had failed. He accused the society's white members of cherry-picking black advocates to sit on the council and its sub-committees.Papier said most black advocates were unlikely to benefit from the new policy because they have more than five years' experience. He said the new policy should exclude white female advocates.Advocate Pearl Mathibela shared Papier's sentiments."That policy is a continuation of the Cape Bar Council's culture of protecting and advancing the interests of white females at the expense of black members of the bar, especially black men."White females make up a whopping 75% of the 'previously disadvantage individuals' component of the Cape Bar and, as a collective, are not disempowered. Their appearances in civil courts bear testimony to this," said Mathibela.Said Golden: "This is a narrative that has been carried in the media to make the Cape Bar look bad. The Cape Bar has never been against transformation . that is absolute nonsense."..