** ** Malesela Teffo
Image: FILE
Disbarred advocate Malesela Teffo arrived at the Johannesburg High Court in full legal garb on Monday and sought to bring an application on behalf of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused.
Teffo told the court that the state had grossly violated the five accused's constitutional rights.
But all five are already represented, and their lawyers objected to the application, telling Judge Cassim Moosa it was wasting their clients' time and money.
Teffo is best known for representing four of the five men accused of murdering Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa before withdrawing from the trial in 2022.
The Pretoria High Court struck him from the roll on September 16 that year after the Legal Practice Council, or LPC, brought an application based on complaints against him.
The court found his misconduct was serious and dishonest.
On July 20 this year, Teffo was found not guilty and discharged on six criminal charges.
Two days later, the LPC said the acquittal did not change his status.
He had not been readmitted to the roll and was not entitled to practise as an advocate in SA.
The trial Teffo walked into is one of the biggest criminal cases of the year.
Matlala, a tenderpreneur, is in the dock with his wife Tsakani Matlala, Musa Kekana, Tiego Floyd Mabusela and Nthabiseng Zandile Nzama.
The state alleged Matlala ordered three hit plots between August 2022 and January 2024.
The alleged targets were taxi boss Joe "Ferrari" Sibanyoni, Matlala's former girlfriend, actress Tebogo Thobejane, and music producer Seunkie "DJ Vetteys" Mokubung.
Bystanders were caught in the gunfire each time, which is why the five face 11 counts of attempted murder among 25 charges.
The remaining charges include conspiracy to commit murder, fraud, money laundering and the illegal possession of prohibited firearms and ammunition.
All five have pleaded not guilty.
Teffo said he was bringing his application through his own organisation, the Malesela Teffo Pro Bono Foundation, of which he is chairperson and founder, and which works for indigent litigants.
"This application has been informed by the serious allegation that I harbour against the state," he said.
“In my heart of hearts, I believe there has been a gross violation of the constitutional rights of all the accused in this matter.”
Moosa put it to Teffo that the accused were already represented by lawyers of their own choosing.
"That's correct, your lordship," Teffo said.
Moosa then questioned whether Teffo had any standing to be in court at all, an issue raised in chambers before proceedings began.
Teffo said he had come prepared.
“[Me being here today] is not accidental,” he said.
"It has some precipitation. It's premeditated, as I acknowledge.
"That is why I prepared myself insofar as my credentials are concerned."
Moosa asked him directly whether he had been struck from the roll of advocates.
"There is such allegation, your lordship," Teffo said.
Moosa told him the answer was either yes or no.
Teffo asked not to be confined to short answers.
"May I ask the honourable court not to confine me, because this is so tedious," he said.
"It is mixed masala. I need first to explain."
"I like mixed masala," Moosa said.
The application to have Teffo struck off was heard on August 4 2022, with judgment reserved.
The order was granted on September 16 2022.
Teffo himself read the first paragraph of the order to the court.
It stated he had been removed from the roll of advocates.
He told the court he had not been present when the order was granted and claimed that his name was later removed from the justice department's list on the basis of what he called a fraudulent court order.
Moosa asked whether Teffo had been readmitted to the roll since then.
Teffo said he was a member of the Gauteng LPC in good standing, apart from unpaid subscriptions for 2024 and 2025.
"I paid my subscription until 2024, and at that time I was in jail," he said.
Asked again for the date of his readmission, Teffo gave the date of his original admission as an advocate, January 5 2009.
That was when the accused's legal teams began to object, one after another.
Advocate Riaan Gissing, for accused number one, Kekana, said his instructions were blunt.
"We should move on," Gissing said.
"We're wasting time with these discussions."
Counsel for accused number two, Mabusela, said his client was paying for his own legal representation and objected to his court time being "used and misused".
Advocate Annelene van den Heever, who represents Matlala and Tsakani, challenged Teffo's claim that he was entitled to practise.
She told the court the LPC had issued a statement on July 22 confirming that Teffo had been struck off the roll and could not practise.
"So, we are currently granting audience to somebody that has got no standing in law to appear before you, speak to you, wear a gown of an advocate or give out and pretend to be an advocate," she said.
Van den Heever said a witness was waiting, that the matter had been postponed because that witness had been unavailable, and that a defence expert was sitting in court.
"Please, can we move on with legitimate business?" she asked.
Moosa said the court would not silence anyone, but could not allow Teffo to proceed without proof of his standing.
"The court is not here at any point in time to muzzle any individual from ventilating whatever it wants to before the court," he said.
He said the day's business was pressing because the witness waiting to testify was a medical practitioner available only for that day, and that the accused were paying their counsel day fees while the application ran.
Moosa said that by appearing in full legal garb, Teffo had presented himself as counsel rather than as a member of the public.
He ordered Teffo to first produce documentary evidence of his readmission by the Gauteng High Court before the court would entertain the application.
Teffo was ordered to stand down.
The court is hearing a trial within a trial, a separate hearing inside the main trial in which the judge decides whether a piece of evidence may be used at all.
Moosa must rule on whether anything police obtained after Kekana's arrest on April 17 2024 can be used against him.
Kekana's counsel has told the court police beat him, tied him up and suffocated him with a plastic courier bag at a house in the Johannesburg suburb of Kew that day.
Police witnesses have denied it.
Once Teffo stood down, the state called its fourth witness in the trial within a trial, medical doctor Pooja Panicker.
State advocate Elize le Roux applied for her face not to be shown on camera, with only her audio carried.
The trial continues.
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