- The Legal Practice Council isa national, statutory body mandated to regulate the legal profession in South Africa.
- Following a leadership change, the LPC has consolidated multiple misconduct complaints against advocate Dali Mpofu into a single inquiry, which was due to start on 30 April.
- That hearing has now been postponed indefinitely, after the LPC dropped three of its charges against Mpofu and gave his lawyers the opportunity to respond to them.
The Legal Practice Council's (LPC) inquiry into Dali Mpofu has been postponed indefinitely– after its chairperson revealed that charges related to the advocate's alleged treatment of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Chief Justice Mandisa Maya had been withdrawn.
According to the chairperson of the inquiry, Daniel Mpanza, Maya "informed the LPC that she didn't want to proceed…that it affects her and all those things".
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's personal," he added.
Mpofu had been accused of using "sexual innuendo" when he said he and Maya, who was being interviewed for the Chief Justice vacancy, "had spent the night together" (a reference to their all-night study sessions as students).
Mpofu responded with fury to the allegation of sexual innuendo against him and maintained that only a "pervert" would have interpreted his words in that way.
In an exclusive interview withNews24, Madonsela also previously said she wanted no part of the LPC inquiry process against Mpofu, which included two charges related to his treatment of her during her questioning at the parliamentary inquiry into removed Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mkhwebane was one of several Mpofu supporters who attended the LPC hearing on Wednesday, which took place in the dark, because of an unexplained power cut. The media were also not allowed into the hearing until after it was concluded.
READ | Bar association slams misconduct charges against Dali Mpofu as 'racially biased, politically motivated'
It was then that Mpanza revealed that, in relation to the Maya and Madonsela charges, that "we were informed that complainants [Maya and Madonsela] are not prepared to proceed".
Mpofu had been charged for allegedly falsely accusing Madonsela of criminality over the way her statement to the Mkhwebane inquiry had been commissioned.
This conduct, the LPC alleged, was "aimed at trying to discredit her [Madonsela] and imputing criminal conduct on her part". This violated Mpofu's obligation as a legal practitioner to "not impugn the character of a witness unless he or she has good grounds to do so", it said.
Madonsela is also the subject of the third LPC charge against Mpofu, who it accuses of "spending many hours cross-examining" and "attempting to impugn her character, where you reasonably should have known that her answers would not be material to her credibility or material to any issue in the case".
READ |Legal council chair dismisses bar association plea to 'rethink' Mpofu charges
In addition to allegedly falsely suggesting that Madonsela was not an admitted advocate, Mpofu devoted a portion of his cross-examination to listing all the insults that had been used to demean her during her investigation into the "security upgrades" at then president Jacob Zuma's Nkandla residence.
According to Mpanza, Mpofu and his lawyers will now be given time to respond to the LPC's amended charge sheet against him but they have not been given a deadline by which to do so.
ADVERTISEMENT
Asked byNews24if he was not concerned the proceedings against Mpofu would be delayed indefinitely, Mpanza said: "We hope that it comes back soon."
