For practical and historical reasons DiSAC was commenced as a collaboration between the various mediation and arbitration service providers in South Africa:

• Historical – Prior to DiSAC the service providers were the only bodies that were actively setting qualification and practice standards in South Africa. It therefore made sense for them to collaborate on defining a uniformed standard
• Practical – Prior ton DiSAC there was no body of accredited mediators and arbitrators. It would therefore have been a practical impossibility to determine which mediators and arbitrators qualify for membership.

However, this has now changed, and a body of accredited mediators is now established. Despite this, the current DiSAC Constitution still entrenches the position of service providers as being the entities who elect the DiSAC committee, to the exclusion of all other role players.

It has become apparent that there are other voices in the industry who feel that they need to have a voice. This includes the mediators and arbitrators – who, probably quite rightly, feel that their interests do not always coincide with that of the service providers. Recent vocal comments by some mediators have already identified this as a current and real issue.

The current constitution of DiSAC does not accommodate this, and revision is required.

DiSAC is in the process of developing discussion document to outline the way forward. Any interested party is invited to put forward suggestions and comments, that may inform this process. Please contribute by 31 March 2015.