Warrant issued for disbarred advocate Teffo after court stunt

The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has confirmed a warrant of arrest has been issued for controversial disbarred advocate Malesela Teffo.

Teffo made an appearance on Monday before the high court in Johannesburg as a friend of the court “in the interest of justice” for all the accused in the dock, including Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala.

Matlala and his four co-accused face 25 consolidated charges, including 11 counts of attempted murder and money laundering tied to botched assassination plots.

The LPC has confirmed the warrant is in relation to a contempt order against Teffo, where the court has found he is in contempt of the original order striking him from the roll.

On Monday the proceedings were paused for a trial-within-a-trial to assess whether key evidence and admissions obtained during the arrest of alleged hitman Musa Kekana are legally admissible.

Teffo’s unexpected appearance led to delays in the trial proceedings, with the defence’s counsel having raised concerns about his standing in court, considering the LPC released a statement earlier this year that he remains disbarred despite his acquittal.

The counsel said his application was a waste of time for their clients as there were more pressing matters at hand considering he had no legal ground to stand in court.

Judge Cassim Moosa ordered Teffo’s application be stood down until he could provide evidence or documentation from the Gauteng Legal Council that he has been readmitted as a legal practitioner.

Meanwhile, proceedings in the Matlala case continued on Tuesday. The state’s new witness, Netcare 911 paramedic Mary Nkgapele, said co-accused Kekana had no visible injuries but remembered him reporting he was assaulted by police officers.

Under questioning by state prosecutor Elize le Roux, Nkgapele said Kekana was handcuffed when paramedics escorted him into his yard and she did not witness police manhandling him.

“He did mention, in our language, that he was assaulted by the police,” Nkgapele told the court.

Asked whether Kekana had mentioned being suffocated, Nkgapele said she could not remember.

“I didn’t record the assaults in the report because I treated the case as a medical case as it came to me as a medical case. I continued it as a medical case,” she said.

According to Nkgapele, Kekana was coughing up blood when she arrived at the scene.

“When we arrived at the scene he was sitting at the side of the road, calm but coughing now and again, and there was blood coming out of his mouth,” she said.

The paramedic said Kekana was eventually transported to Alexandra Clinic before being referred to Edenvale Hospital because his condition required hospital treatment.

Nkgapele testified that she did not see a police officer pulling out Kekana’s oxygen pipe and did not witness him being manhandled.

“He was asked to come out of the ambulance and we took him to hospital,” she said.

The testimony is part of the trial-within-a-trial concerning evidence linked to Kekana’s arrest in the murder case involving engineer Armand Swart.