The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has claimed suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fugitive ‘legal consultant’ Paul Ngobeni is ‘not a fit and proper person’ to practise as an advocate – and is fighting his court bid to be admitted as a lawyer.

A News24 report by legal journalist Karyn Maughan says according to the LPC, Ngobeni's non-suitability to practise as an advocate is ‘in light of his suspension and alleged misconduct in the US’, where he was reportedly accused of forgery and larceny.

It further maintains that Ngobeni has failed to produce any real evidence that he is, in fact, able to practise law in SA and contends that he does not have the qualifications required to be admitted as a lawyer.

For reasons that have yet to be explained, however, the LPC says Ngobeni's case, which was heard on Friday, was wrongly identified as ‘unopposed’ – despite LPC chairperson Janine Myburgh filing a 38-page affidavit that detailed why the council was fighting it.

The News24 report notes this treatment of the hearing of the case, in which Ngobeni is being represented by Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe's personal attorney, Barnabas Xulu, does not appear to be an isolated incident.

Myburgh reveals in court papers that Ngobeni had launched ex parte litigation to be admitted to practise as a legal representative in SA in May 2021, meaning that the council was initially not served with his application. Ngobeni wants to force the LPC and the Registrar of the Western Cape High Court to enrol him as an advocate – despite there currently being no tangible evidence that he is, in fact, able to practise law.

Myburgh reveals in court papers that, after Ngobeni served the LPC with a copy of his ex parte application for admission two months after he had launched it, it filed a notice to oppose it. Despite this fact, which Ngobeni himself acknowledged in court papers, he nonetheless set the case down for hearing on the unopposed roll in September 2021.

After the LPC protested, Hlophe indicated that he had given the council ‘leave to oppose’ Ngobeni's application and stated, in a letter from his registrar, that it was now an ‘opposed matter’.

Myburgh said Xulu failed to respond to any of the correspondence sent to him after Hlophe had issued this directive.

In addition to finding that Ngobeni had ‘failed to appear in court in the state of Connecticut and is a fugitive from justice in the US’, then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's 2012 finding concluded that the allegation that he had been disbarred from practising law in that state was also ‘substantiated’.

She noted that Ngobeni ‘did resign following a process that sought to disbar him’.

Ngobeni denies any wrongdoing.

According to Ngobeni, who claims he studied and practised law in the US, he was granted a written exemption by the now late Justice Minister Dullah Omar to practise law in SA in 1995 and was, therefore, entitled to be admitted as a lawyer in SA.

The News24 report says despite Madonsela's findings to the contrary and his own admission that he cannot secure a visa to the US, Ngobeni denies that he is a fugitive from justice.

Ngobeni admits, however, that he has not been able to secure a copy of the alleged exemption granted to him by Omar from the Justice Ministry.

But, while Ngobeni contends that the LPC should search its records to find this exemption, Myburgh says this responsibility falls squarely on him. ‘With respect, it is not for the LPC to conduct this search,’ she states.

She added: ‘It is for (Ngobeni) to provide a copy of the written exemption considering that the basis of his ex parte application for admission and enrolment as a practising advocate of this Honourable Court is based squarely on the written exemption.’

Myburgh is also adamant that Ngobeni should have sought a copy of his alleged exemption, using the Promotion of Access to Information legislation, prior to launching his litigation against the LPC.

‘This court cannot simply accept (Ngobeni's) word regarding the written exemption,’ she added.

According to the News24 report, Myburgh claims Ngobeni's application for admission ‘clearly has not demonstrated full compliance with the requirements of the Legal Practice Act’.

She added that it is ‘rather curious’ Ngobeni claims not to have possession of the written exemption upon which he bases his case for admission as a legal practitioner.

‘No explanation has been provided for where (Ngobeni's) copy of the written exemption is or how it was misplaced, if that is, in fact, what happened,’ she said.

Full News24 report