The Johannesburg Labour Court had chastised lawyers for bringing "absolutely hopeless cases" before it and, in two cases, prohibited the attorneys and advocates from charging their clients any fees. Acting Judge Smanga Sethene directed that if fees had already been paid, the lawyers had to pay back the money. One case involved UNISA, which had employed Dr Marcia Socikwa as one of its vice-principals for a five-year fixed-term contract. UNISA filed a review application with the labour court in October 2022 challenging the CCMA’s ruling but did so out of time, and no further action was taken. When Socikwa went with the Sheriff in May this year to attach assets from UNISA, the institution sprang into action, approaching the court and claiming there was a review application pending and that Socikwa was acting unlawfully.
Sethene said when he challenged UNISA’s lawyers about whether there was a pending review, counsel took instruction and then asked for an order striking its application from the roll with costs. Judge Sethene ruled that UNISA and the Limpopo Department of Justice and Constitutional Development had self-created urgency in their review applications. He noted that both had ignored stipulated timeframes for lodging review applications and believed there was hope in their hopeless urgent applications. He struck both matters off the roll and ordered that attorney and advocate acting for UNISA cannot charge any fee. He also called the Legal Practice Council to investigate the conduct of Prof Peach and directed the state attorney’s office to investigate the conduct of its attorney.
He awarded costs against both UNISA and the department on a punitive scale. According to the judgment, the lawyers for UNISA were Advocate Sello Raselalome, instructed by Poswa Inc, and for the department Advocate N.R Choeu conducted by the State Attorney, Polokwane.
This story is sourced from Groundup.org.za
