Malesela Teffo has been hit with a cost order and his variation application struck from the roll after he failed to appear in court for the matter yesterday, reports News24.

Neither Teffo nor a legal representative for him appeared in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to argue his variation application related to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) case that saw him disbarred in September last year.

Advocate Mfesane Ka-Siboto for the LPC, which was planning to oppose the application for variation, told the court that Teffo, who was expected to represent himself, had been notified to appear in court.

Judge Mncedisi Khumalo noted that his registrar had contacted Teffo last week about his application and that, inexplicably, Teffo ordered the registrar to call him to remind him about the matter.

With Teffo absent from court on his own application, Khumalo struck the matter from the roll and awarded costs to the LPC.

After being struck from the roll of advocates, Teffo brought a rescission application.

However, Teffo abandoned his rescission application before it could be argued in court, deciding instead, to bring a variation application, seemingly arguing that he was never disbarred because of a possible duplication or clerical error in the case numbers assigned to the matter.

The LPC explained that the issue of the case numbers was nothing more than a clerical error and had no material effect on the application to have Teffo disbarred.

Teffo had at one stage represented four of the accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial.

Full News24 report