Advocate Malesela Teffo has been struck off the roll of legal practitioners and ordered to return his certificate of enrolment as legal practitioner to the Registrar of the Court.

In what a Daily Maverick report calls a scathing judgment, the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) found that Teffo did not adhere to the highest standards expected by the profession and the courts.

It found Teffo lacked the sense of responsibility, honesty, integrity and such attributes that are characteristics of an advocate.

This severe punishment comes after the Legal Practice Council (LPC) said it had received 22 complaints about Teffo’s behaviour between 2019 and 2021.

During the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, Teffo’s outrageous comments trended on social media. He told the court that ‘the situation is fucked up’; he accused Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela of practising witchcraft; and even went as far as accusing the Presidency of intimidating him. Teffo did not provide proof of his claims and the Presidency dismissed them as baseless.

The court underlined that a legal practitioner is a member of a learned, respected and honourable profession, and by entering it he pledges himself to total and unquestionable integrity to the courts and the profession, says the DM report.

The court further reiterated that the image and standing of the profession are judged by the conduct and reputation of all the members, and that to maintain this confidence all members the profession must exhibit qualities set out above at all times.

‘This court is convinced that Teffo’s conducts no longer meet the requisite threshold of a fit and proper person, and is satisfied that the LPC has proved its case on balance of probabilities that Teffo is not a fit and proper person and that his countenance in practising would involve danger to the public or the good name of the profession,’ the court found.

The judgment also indicated that Teffo misled the courts on a number of occasions; he was even contemptuous in a number of instances.

The court also wasted no time in dealing with a scornful letter, dated 25 July 2022, addressed to advocate GD Baloyi, in which Teffo averred he had been experiencing harassment from the courts, the police, the Minister of Police and the prosecution, including the DPP in Johannesburg.

The court rubbished the letter, indicating it would not waste time dealing with delinquent assumptions and misconstrued aspersions levelled at the office of the court.

‘The court is short of words in attributing this level of behaviour projected by Teffo. Safe to say he has no regard for justice. It is our view that the contention by Teffo that the applicant failed to give him an opportunity to address his complaints should not be given as an excuse for not dealing with them,’ the court ruled.

Full Daily Maverick report

Judgment