Malesela Teffo, the controversial advocate who was recently stripped of his right to work as a lawyer, appeared briefly in the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Wednesday on charges of assault, trespassing and contempt of court.
Teffo was representing himself but told the court he would bring a legal representative at his next appearance.
The prosecution told the court that the state had disclosed the contents of the docket with the defence, but Teffo said he had not received all the statements.
“I don't know what I'm charged with. I don't have the charges yet. Among the disclosure, I see numerous cases. Cases I know from seven years ago are part of the disclosure. It's my guess that the charges against me were never pronounced,” Teffo told the court.
There was an exchange of words between Teffo and magistrate Theunis Carstens.
Teffo maintained that because the state has not provided him with all the information on his charges, this would directly affect how he proceeds with the case.
“You will know [more] about the charges during the pretrial conference,” Carstens told Teffo.
The magistrate proceeded to ask Teffo if he would be making representations to the state.
Teffo then tried to raise issues about the Legal Practice Council (LPC), but Carstens quickly stopped him.
“I'm not interested in that. I'm dealing with the current matter,” Carstens said.
Teffo's case was postponed to November 3 for Teffo to make representations.
The former advocate in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial was removed from the roll of legal practitioners by order of the Pretoria high court earlier this month after the LPC led evidence about 22 complaints of malpractice against him. These included:
- misleading the court;
- threatening clients; and
- failing to act in an ethical and professional manner during court proceedings.
In April he was granted bail of R10,000 by the Hillbrow magistrate’s court after being arrested by police acting on a warrant for failure to appear in another court on assault and trespassing charges relating to the alleged assault of a policewoman and entering the SAPS Gauteng provincial building in contravention of a high court interdict.
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