‘Malema’s lawyer’ Tumi Mokwena acquitted on attempted murder counts
The lawyer was found to have acted in self-defence after he was alleged to have fired shots without warning.
FILE PHOTO: Julius Malema, left, and his then lawyer Tumi Mokwena during his court appearance at the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court on June 20, 2013, in Polokwane, South Africa. Malema faced charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and racketeering. Picture: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Elijar Mushiana
Tumi Mokwena, who at one point was the lawyer of Economic Freedom Fighter leader Julius Malema, has been acquitted on four counts of attempted murder by the Polokwane High Court.
He appeared in court on Tuesday, where Judge Ephraim Makgoba ruled he acted in self-defense and had no intention to kill. He found that the evidence brought forward by four witnesses was unreliable.
A security supervisor at the Zebediela Citrus farm, Klaas Mboweni, testified that Mokwena shot at workers without firing a warning shot and described the incident as an unprovoked attack.
Mokwena was accused of attempted murder for shooting and injuring four farmworkers over a salary dispute at the Zebediela Citrus Farm Estate farm in 2017 and he testified that his actions were in self-defence as he would have wasted time trying to escape a violent scene.
The dispute allegedly erupted when the workers chanted for the lawyer to show himself so they could confront him over a salary dispute.
Mokwena was released on R10,000 bail. Malema appeared in court to support his lawyer during the 2017 bail hearing.
Mokwena represented the EFF leader in his dispute with the SA Revenue Services (Sars) and the land invasion cases in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State courts.
It is alleged that when Mokwena visited the estate in connection with five workers who had salary disputes with its management, a group of angry farmworkers confronted him with sticks and stones, and demanded that he leave the property.
The group accused Mokwena of failing to pay workers while he was part of the farm’s management in 2016.
When the workers blocked his way as he tried to leave, Mokwena allegedly shot and injured four employees.
At the time of the bail hearing, Malema defended the lawyer as innocent.
(Compiled by Gopolang Chawane, additional reporting by ANA.)
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