The state's hunting down of lawyer Barnabas Xulu for R20m in legal fees is an ‘extraordinary extravagance’, his Advocate, Isaac Shai, told the Western Cape High Court in a virtual hearing on Friday.

‘It is not the job of the state to litigate,’ he added. ‘It is the job of the state to deliver services to the country.’

A News24 report notes Shai was finishing his lengthy submissions to show the court why Xulu should not be found personally liable to the Fisheries Department for a R20m refund. It's the department case that the amount was paid to him in violation of the State Liability Act.

Xulu has been in a bitter and long-running dispute over the payment, which was for services rendered to the department.

His work included getting a multimillion-rand reparations settlement amount in lieu of lobster and hake that was plundered from the country's waters by a Hout Bay fishing company.

Shai said Xulu did the work and sent the department repeated requests for payment. When he eventually obtained a writ, legally, and got the money via the sheriff of the court, he had to pay debt to others, including a US-based law firm.

Shai asked whether Xulu would even have to pay back the fees that he paid on behalf of the department.

He submitted that the state could not claim the costs of three counsel, which it is asking for, because it didn't need to go to court in the first place.

‘We believe, in this instance, the state; the department has been extraordinary, extravagant in the manner which they pursued this matter,’ Shai submitted.

Full News24 report

A lawyer for the Fisheries Department rubbished Xulu's claims that the department is targeting a small black-owned law firm.

Advocate Nazreen Bawa said that while she agreed with Xulu that it was difficult for black legal practitioners to get ahead, ‘that can never be a justification for taking public money out of a government account’.

She said that if public money ended up in the hands of the wrong person, it should be returned. 'This wasn't even fisheries money,’ said Bawa, according to another News24 report. ‘This was agricultural money that was taken.’

Bawa also disputed that an attorney of Xulu's standing did not know there were supposed to be procedures and notices before the money was paid out to him so quickly, and she could not grasp how his fees had escalated to R56m from R6.3m.

‘And then you complain that a small black firm is being targeted,’ said Bawa.

Bawa submitted that his office manager, Nicole Lauren Pick, had colluded with Xulu in helping to move the money and that she should pay back money put through her account by Xulu's company when he got the money from the department.

Pick's lawyer Murray Bridgman had earlier showed that she had bought Xulu's business travel tickets from her personal bank accounts and had covered other business expenses on his behalf because he could not get credit.

Bawa rejected this explanation, saying that while Pick was lending Xulu money to keep his business afloat, he was driving around in a Porsche.

Full News24 report