Power outage and changes to charge sheet lead to delay in Mpofu disciplinary hearing

Advocate Dali Mpofu appeared before the disciplinary committee of the Legal Practice Council in Pretoria on 30 April 2025. (Photo: Dianne Hawker)

By Dianne Hawker

30 Apr 2025

Dali Mpofu was supported by former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane at his Legal Practice Council disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, 30 April 2025. Several of the charges relate to how Mpofu conducted himself during cross-examination in a parliamentary inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has postponed the disciplinary hearing of Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, without a new hearing date. When legal teams arrived at the LPC’s Pretoria office, they were greeted by dark corridors due to a power outage. Staff at the building said the entire block had been affected by outages as far back as 25 April. Some neighbouring buildings had generators running.

The chairperson of the committee, Daniel Mpanza, later addressed the media, confirming that the matter had been postponed partly due to the outage. The second reason for the postponement was a late amendment to the charge sheet, which initially had seven charges.

Mpanza explained that two charges relating to former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela had been withdrawn. A third charge related to Chief Justice Mandisa Maya was also withdrawn.

“The chief justice didn’t want to proceed. It affects her and all those things. It’s personal,” Mpanza said.

The Legal Practice Council had initially complained about a comment Mpofu made during the interview of now Chief Justice Mandisa Maya at the Judicial Service Commission.

Mpofu had commented that he and Maya had “spent our nights together” during law school. Maya later clarified that she had studied overnight with Mpofu. The council viewed Mpofu’s comment as “discriminatory and laden with sexual innuendo, which was offensive, unprofessional and lacking decorum”.

The charge will no longer be prosecuted.

Read more: Mpofu tried to ‘humiliate me’ — ex-SARS executive Van Loggerenberg ahead of lawyer’s disciplinary

The Legal Practice Council has retained and amended a charge related to a letter it believes Mpofu “caused” to be written to three judges. The judges were adjudicating a case involving former Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo. Moyo had taken Old Mutual to court over his 2019 dismissal, and was represented by Mpofu in court.

During the course of the 2021 case, the judges expressed concern about a number of procedural issues in the matter, including the late filing of documents. The court called on the lawyers to submit a practice note clarifying their main points or argument.

A power outage kept the Legal Practice Council's offices in Pretoria in the dark on 30 April 2025. (Photo: Dianne Hawker)

A strongly worded letter was then sent to Judges Joseph Raulinga, Mpostoli Twala and Ingrid Opperman, signed by attorney Rudolph Baloyi. The letter appeared to admonish the judges for alleged bias: “Our client’s concerns started with the manner of questions and interventions reserved for our client’s lead counsel, who were repeatedly questioned, including the unfair and unfounded accusation of making ‘political speeches’, which was correctly withdrawn with an apology only upon the protestation of Mpofu SC. The apology was accepted and that issue is therefore behind us. However, the latest developments have only served to increase and revive his earlier fears of a predetermined outcome and reasonable perception of bias,” the letter read.

The judges in the case took exception to the tone and content of the letter, saying they would refer the matter to the Legal Practice Council for investigation.

Read more: Concerted effort needed from legal profession to fix ‘incompetent’ Legal Practice Council

Commenting on the withdrawal of the charges, Mpofu reiterated that he found the charges “laughable”.

“We are not vindicated by the fact that now three of them are dropped without us even opening our mouth.”

He added that he intended to bring a review application to review the decision to charge him in the first place.

Mpofu had also taken exception to the inclusion of the Council for the Advancement of the Constitution (Casac) in the proceedings, despite the NGO being one of the complainants.

“We objected to their presence and they were kicked out, which is just desserts for them,” Mpofu commented after the hearing.

Commenting on the withdrawal of the charges, Mpofu reiterated that he found the charges “laughable”.

The Council for the Advancement of the Constitution’s executive secretary Lawson Naidoo spoke to journalists at the hearing and said he was concerned that the charge sheet had been amended without the knowledge of the complainants.

“We really don’t understand the basis on which some of the charges were withdrawn. For example the two charges that relate to Advocate Mpofu’s conduct in relation to advocate Thuli Madondolsa and Chief Justice Maya. We’ve been informed that these two individuals don’t want to proceed but the complaint was laid by Casac. It was not dependent on the approval or even the evidence of those people.”

He was also concerned about the delay in the proceedings.

“We lodged the complaint in May of 2023. That’s two years ago so it has taken a long time to get to this stage. It is a serious concern for us that we’ve wasted all this time to get to this point and that the matter has been postponed,” he said.

Mpofu was supported by members of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party, including Mkhwebane, who is also facing censure from the Legal Practice Council. It wants her removed from the roll of advocates. DM

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