An attorney who was struck off for ‘rapacious plundering’ of damages paid to road accident victims, has received a fresh upbraiding by the Western Cape High Court and was slapped with new costs orders, according to a Times Select report.

Siyakudumisa Mlunguza was struck off the roll of attorneys for unprofessional, dishonourable and unworthy conduct after the Cape Law Society took action against him in November 2018.

Mlunguza turned to the High Court in a bid to be reinstated as the executor of a deceased estate that belonged to one of his RAF clients, Viriato Sauane.

Sauane’s will, which was drawn up and witnessed by Mlunguza, said 25% of the proceeds of the estate would go to Mlunguza as executor.

Judge Owen Rogers dismissed his application, saying it had revealed Mlunguza’s ‘mercenary aims’.

Rogers castigated the former attorney for a series of ‘highly defamatory’ claims in court papers against staff at the Office of the Master of the High Court, a senior counsel and other attorneys.

Mlunguza accused them of wanting to benefit from a deceased estate, collusion, corruption and fraud, and said the Master was ‘malicious’ and ran her office like a ‘personal fiefdom’.

Rogers said Mlunguza’s allegations had no foundation and were ‘wholly improper’.

He ordered the former attorney to pay half of the Master’s costs and all the costs incurred by assistant Master Nadia Mouton, whom he sued in her personal capacity.

Rogers was scathing of Mlunguza’s court papers, noting they made the ‘remarkable’ claim that he wanted to be reinstated as executor of Sauane’s estate because he had invested a lot of money in the Mozambican’s claim against the RAF ‘and now I want my investment to pay’.

The Master’s Office removed him as executor after he was interdicted from operating a trust account.

He applied to be reinstated because the interdict lapsed.

According to Times Select, Rogers said his removal had been improperly handled by the Master’s Office, but he could not be reinstated because it was illegal for a person who witnessed a will to benefit from it.

‘He has not only shown himself to be ignorant about the provisions of the Wills Act, but has demonstrated a complete lack of insight into the duties of an executor,’ he said.

Rogers’s judgment noted Mlunguza had applied to the SCA in October for leave to appeal against his striking off. The outcome is not yet known.

Full Times Select report (subscription needed)