Cape Town – Former advocate in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, Malesela Teffo was reportedly struck off the roll of advocates on Friday.
According to TimesLIVE, the Pretoria High court ruled that Teffo was not fit to continue as a legal practitioner after the Legal Practice Council (LPC) received 22 complaints against him, which included misleading the court, threatening clients, and failing to act in an ethical and professional manner during court proceedings.
Judge Stanley Nyathi and Acting Judge Thembi Bokako ordered that Teffo be struck off the roll of legal practitioners and surrender his certificate of enrolment as a legal practitioner to the registrar of the Pretoria Magistrates Court within two weeks, the report said.
LPC advocate Mfesane Ka-Siboto had told the court that 75% of the complaints related to how Teffo conducted himself and presented correspondence, affidavits and court recordings, the report said.
IOL reported that Teffo had initially attempted to save his career when he addressed the judges last week, blaming a variety of entities with no supporting facts or evidence.
ALSO READ | WATCH | Advocate Malesela Teffo quits Senzo Meyiwa murder trial… cites harassment
“It is clear from the so-called applicant (the LPC) submissions that I am here because of the courts, the police, the national prosecuting authority and the office of the president of this country. They are all victimising me,” Teffo told Judge Stanley Nyathi and Acting Judge T Bokako, according to the report.
During the court proceedings, Teffo kept interrupting judges, as they announced to the court that judgment was reserved and demanded an order to force the LPC to hand over the list of allegations against him, the report said.
The former advocate has 15 working days to appeal the court’s decision, but Gauteng LPC director Johan van Staden said they were ready to oppose, reported EWN.
“The court has confirmed that one needs to protect the interest of the public, and if the LPC is presented with allegations of such a serious nature, that it cannot allow such a person to continue to practise as a legal practitioner and to seek intervention in which such a person is removed from the roll of legal practitioners,” the report quoted van Staden as saying.
In July Teffo, who was representing four of the five accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, reportedly withdrew from the case as counsel.
Without evidence, he alleged that a plan to harass him was hatched from the President’s Office and that judge Maumela was implicated as “accused number one”.
“I am labelled a problematic lawyer because I am disturbing that plan, the plan is that my clients should take responsibility of the murder of Senzo Meyiwa, despite the fact that they were innocent,” Teffo was quoted as saying at the time.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/@MaromoFineArt
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
