By Amukelani Chauke

George Bizos, human rights advocate and lifelong friend of former President Nelson Mandela, is getting his wish.

The Chancellor House building in central Johannesburg - in which Mandela and former ANC president Oliver Tambo practised law in the 1950s - will be turned into a legal resources centre.

Speaking at the launch of the refurbishment of Chancellor House, across the road from the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court, Bizos said: "We want the rooms that were used by Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo to be used for lawyers as consulting rooms.

"We don't want lawyers to come out of the magistrate's court and go to a restaurant or coffee shop to sit with their clients," he said.

The Joburg Development Agency, which is tasked with redeveloping dilapidated buildings owned by the city, expropriated the building last June and invested R7-million to refurbish it after the previous owners abandoned it, leaving it as home to 68 vagrants.

Bizos said he also wanted a law library to form part of the legal resources centre.

"We have considered asking the Legal Aid Board to at least have a desk in this building. We want it to be a centre in which legal aid will be around."

He said this would make it easy for members of the public going to the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court who would want to apply for free legal representation.

"We have also been in touch with the Black Lawyers Association and other law associations and trying to persuade them to take over the running costs of this facility," he said.

Mandela's granddaughter, Ndileka, who attended the launch, said the former president would not visit his refurbished office due to ill-health.

Ndileka said Mandela "is excited. For him I think, more than anything, he has always maintained that he was the face of the struggle and there were other people as well. For him to be honoured with those people is really special."

Roslyn Greeff, Johannesburg's mayoral committee member for development planning and urban management, said that Chancellor House would cost the Joburg Development Agency R50 000 a month to run.

Mayor Amos Masondo said the municipality would soon appoint a non-governmental organisation to run Chancellor House .

"The old law offices on the second floor will accommodate a collection of digitised documents of legal cases handled by the two struggle icons," Masondo said.

Source: The Times