The Law Society of the Northern Provinces has been given the go-ahead to inspect the accounting records of Polokwane attorney Tumi Mokwena following complaints of misconduct.

The approval was granted after Mokwena failed to lodge a petition with the Judge President of the SCA within the stipulated time for reconsideration and variation of the dismissal of his appeal against a Limpopo High Court order allowing the society to inspect his accounting records as well as files belonging to his law firm.

News24 notes the case has its origin in a complaint lodged by a member of the Bjatladi Communal Property Association (BCPA), a beneficiary of the Zebediela Citrus Estate through the land reform programme. It involves an amount of R10m deposited into Mokwena's trust account on behalf of the BCPA. A company known as the Exotic Fruit Company also apparently deposited more than R28m through several payments into his trust account.

This money, however, did not trickle down to the BCPA and, as with the R10m, remains unaccounted for, notes the report.

All this happened while Mokwena was running the affairs of the Zebediela Citrus Estate on behalf of the beneficiaries.

Mokwena’s attorney, Floyd Legodi, reportedly told News24: ‘You are running a campaign of which the end results will reveal itself.’

The latest development comes at a time when Mokwena is fighting an application in the High Court to have his law firm liquidated. The application was brought by businessman Sthembiso Bethuel Bosch, a trustee of the Majola Trust, who deposited R1.5m and then R150 000 into Mokwena's trust account in 2014 for the purchase of a property that did not materialise.

This case has been postponed due to Mokwena's late filing of his court papers.

Full News24 report