Advocate Dali Mpofu will not be proposing his own penalty for telling a fellow lawyer to “shut up” at the state capture inquiry last year, after the Johannesburg Society of Advocates (JSA) found he had breached a lawyers’ ethics code and gave him until Friday to suggest a sanction.
“I think it’s ridiculous and I’m going to appeal,” Mpofu told Business Day, saying he was meeting his team on Wednesday morning and would not be sending a proposed sanction to the JSA, a professional body.
The JSA, also known as the Johannesburg bar, found Mpofu breached the code over remarks at the Zondo commission. The JSA informed him in a letter that he had five days to propose his own sanction.
At this stage, the JSA’s adverse finding and call for Mpofu’s response do not prohibit his work as an advocate and he has the right to appeal.
Committee secretary advocate Don Mahon said proceedings were still in progress. “The ultimate decision by the committee will be susceptible to appeal to the General Council of the Bar of SA,” he said.
Mpofu is the subject of another probe by a professional grouping, the Legal Professionals Council (LPC), related to his behaviour towards chief justice designate Raymond Zondo. In a TV interview last week, after news that Zondo would be the next top judge, Mpofu praised him. However, last year, in a letter to the JSA, Mpofu threatened to litigate against Zondo.
Mpofu wrote to say that the JSA professional and fees committee had not explained why it was necessary for him to respond to points on related retweets added to the original complaint about his “shut up” remark. He threatened to take legal steps against Zondo for comments in a press conference that Mpofu said were “unfounded, defamatory and otherwise untruthful”.
Mpofu is both a lawyer and a senior politician in the EFF, which is often a difficult tightrope to walk and a source of controversy. He recently lost a seat representing lawyers in a key constitutional body. Mpofu had sat on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for Advocates For Transformation (AFT). He has led the JSA in the past.
Two seats on the JSC, which runs judges’ interviews and disciplinary hearings, are held by the General Council of the Bar (GCB). It, in turn, allocates one to the AFT. Mpofu’s period as an AFT representative has now ended, so he has forfeited his role as one of two JSC spokespeople.
The JSC has also been the subject of controversy. Fraught JSC sittings, especially last month’s interviews with four chief justice candidates, shone a spotlight on body. Analysts and legal nonprofits have raised the alarm over commissioners’ behaviour, with some arguing that politicians should be removed. The criticisms have also drawn attention to members with political ties, including Mpofu.
But it was his conduct at the Zondo commission last year that is the current thorn in Mpofu’s side. JSA provisions insist that lawyers guard against souring collegial relations when representing clients at odds with one another. Mpofu’s command that fellow silk Michelle le Roux “shut up” was issued at tense state capture inquiry proceedings in March 2021.
Mpofu was representing former SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane, while Le Roux stood for public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, who was in attendance. As Mpofu made his submission, Le Roux stood up and explained she wished to respond to the assertion that Gordhan was racist. Zondo did not oblige.
Her interruption provoked Mpofu, who was adamant Le Roux’s interjections should stop. “Ms Le Roux must shut up when I am speaking,” he said.
When commission chair Zondo, intervened and began to hear from Le Roux, matters escalated. At one point, Mpofu insisted Gordhan, too, should “shut up” and later threatened to leave.
In a press conference soon after the lawyers’ standoff, Zondo slated Mpofu’s conduct as unacceptable, adding he would never use the words “shut up” and if he had allowed such comments to go unchecked there would be chaos in proceedings.
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