Acting judge slams legal eagles for ‘breaking lockdown rules’

An acting judge in the Mpumalanga High Court has slammed more than half a dozen lawyers and advocates who appeared before him last week, finding they breached the Covid-19 lockdown regulations – and the law – in the process.

In a judgment handed down last Friday, Acting Judge Hein Brauckmann found the group contravened movement restrictions in travelling to and from court without valid permits. He labelled their conduct “contemptuous”, barred them from charging their clients for the work and referred them to the Legal Practice Council.

But the advocates and lawyers hit back, denying impropriety and pushing for an appeal.

The judgment emanated from an urgent application brought by different state entities against a one-time municipal manager.

On the day of the hearing, Brauckmann said the legal practitioners involved had provided him with documents “purporting to be permits” allowing them to travel to render essential legal services during the lockdown.

“Those that were not in possession of permits at court undertook to provide my secretary with such permits before [noon] on 1 April, which permits were not supplied to her,” he said.

Of those that were received, Brauckmann said he could tell “by merely glancing at the ‘permits’ there was non-compliance”.

Brauckmann said Gauteng-based advocate Mxolisi Zondo, who had been representing the administrator of Dr JS Moroka Municipality that Tuesday, had “failed to present a permit to my secretary, despite being requested to do so by her prior to the proceedings and during the proceedings by me”.

“Not only did Mr Zondo ignore the regulations by travelling across the provincial border [Gauteng to Mpumalanga on 31 March], but he failed to obtain a permit from the director of the Legal Practice Council,” he said.

Zondo yesterday rubbished the finding against him. He said he had provided the judge’s secretary with the relevant documents.

These documents had been accepted by police and soldiers at roadblocks on his way to and from court on the day in question, Zondo added.

He described the acting judge’s conduct in court as “rude” and “aggressive”.

“I have never been so belittled in almost 20 years of my practice in the legal profession,” Zondo said.

He said he had not been given an opportunity to make any submissions ahead of the judgment and was planning to launch an application for leave to appeal today.

Of Andrew Laka SC, who is also Gauteng-based, the acting judge said he and his junior counsel’s permits should have been issued by the director of the Gauteng Legal Practice Council and had the wrong stamp.

He laid into them, saying they had travelled to Middelburg “openly flouting the regulations and directives, and in the process, possibly committed not only professional misconduct, but also criminal offences”.

Laka also refuted the findings. He said he had “not one, but two” permits on the day of the hearing.

He said the first he had heard of the judgment was on Monday.

“The issue of permits was never discussed in court. It was only asked [about] by the secretary.

“The judge himself did not raise this question of permits except when he ordered three legal practitioners, who had said they didn’t have permits with them, to submit permits within three days,” Laka said. “So I was shocked.”

He believed the acting judge had exceeded his powers.

“And it is very unfortunate because had he discussed this with us, chances are he wouldn’t have made this type of judgment.

“For instance, he incorrectly assumed my junior stays in Gauteng when, in fact, he stays in Mpumalanga.”

Laka indicated he would also challenge the judgment.

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