Avatar photo

By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Mpofu’s arguments in court receive mixed reactions

The advocate seems to have disappointed some of his followers, with some saying he is 'too emotional'.


Economic Freedom Fighters chairperson and advocate Dali Mpofu’s arguments in court have landed him on the Twitter trends list for various reasons. The advocate is representing Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in her fight against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The president is at the High Court in Pretoria today applying for an interdict against the public protector’s remedial action after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was found guilty of having irregularly allowed former Sars deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s early retirement.

“The entire country must be paralysed, the office of the public protector must be killed and blunted, everything we stand for in this democracy must be undermined for the convenience of Mr Gordhan, one man,” said Mpofu in one of his many arguments.

While the advocate has been commended for his arguments, with some claiming he was “schooling” Ramaphosa’s lawyers on law, some, however, differed in opinion, saying Mpofu was “too emotional”.

Twitter user @raulsekwati1 said: “Dali Mpofu is actively sabotaging himself by taking a posture of a chairman of a party in a court of law. His legal composure is non-existent. He is all over the place, perhaps he is playing to the gallery of fellow fighters. He is going to lose this case,” while @Edskillz_Don wrote: “All lawyers win and lose cases multiple times, depends on the merits of the case. But do not be fooled, Dali Mpofu is not your average lawyer. Just wish if my PP consulted with guys of such calibre before issuing reports we would not be in such a mess.”

EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi’s “key observation” also sparked a debate on Mpofu and those he represented.

He said: “Ramaphosa is represented by Adv Maenetje; the same legal representative that unsuccessfully represented Old Mutual and Trevor Manuel in the Moyo case. And the PP is represented by the People’s Advocate.”

His followers were quick to remind him that the same people’s advocate represented Gareth Cliff after his exit from Idols SA following his comments on Penny Sparrow.

These were some of the reactions on social media:

https://twitter.com/whymapungubwe/status/1156902479285673984

https://twitter.com/KMalatji/status/1156904393507254272

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.

Access premium news and stories

Access to the top content, vouchers and other member only benefits