Pensionerâs 40-year-long struggle to retrieve inherited house
By Aishah Cassiem
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Cape Town â An 82-year-old pensioner from Cape Town discovered his case files had been destroyed by the Cape Law Society (CLC) after begging them since 1981 to assist him after his inherited family house and money were allegedly stolen by crooked attorneys.
Richard Benson had been working tirelessly over the years to pay new attorneys for the finalisation of his motherâs estate but it had only left him bankrupt and homeless due to alleged corruption within the law fraternity.
He said he approached the police, CLC and the government, but nothing has been done about his property and money other than attorneys being arrested or struck from the roll.
Zuma lawyer Kemp J Kemp dies of COVID-19 Kemp is best known for defending former President Jacob Zuma during his rape trial in 2006. FILE: Advocate Kemp J Kemp representing Jacob Zuma at the spy tape case at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on 14 September 2017. Picture: Mujahid Safodien/AFP
55 days ago
JOHANNESBURG - The Legal Practice Council has confirmed that prominent lawyer Advocate Kemp J Kemp has died after contracting COVID-19.
Kemp is best known for defending former President Jacob Zuma during his rape trial in 2006.
He passed away on Tuesday night.
Dr Llewellyn Curlewis is the former president of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces and is currently on the management committee of the Gauteng Legal Practice Council.
Bernadette Wicks Lies in affidavits about how often she met ex-president Zuma, state alleges. Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane at the Pretoria Magistrates Court appearing on charges of Perjury, 21 January 2021 . Picture: Neil McCartney There is a lot on the line for perjury-accused Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who could face jail time, be disbarred and axed – if the charges against her stick. Criminal expert Dr Llewelyn Curlewis said yesterday there was a very real possibility that, if convicted, Mkhwebane could land up behind bars. “One would likely be looking at a shorter term for a first-time offender, though.” He also said she could be looking at a periodic imprisonment, a suspended sentence or a fine, instead. Any which way, though, a criminal conviction would almost certainly see Mk
Thapelo Lekabe The odds are stacked against Mkhwebane given the perjury case, an investigation by the Legal Practice Council over her fitness for office and the pending parliamentary impeachment process. Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in the dock. Picture: Neil McCartney
Mkhwebane appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on three counts of perjury over her investigation into the apartheid-era loan by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to Absa in the 1980s.
“This postponement today [Thursday] is the beginning of the end for the public protector,” Hoffman told
The Citizen after the case was postponed to 25 March to prepare for a pre-trial hearing.
The criminal complaint was laid by lobby group, Accountability Now, in July 2019 after a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruling that upheld a Pretoria High Court judgment, which found that she was dishonest regarding the meetings she had had with former president Jacob Zuma in affidavits submitted to the court and the Pretoria Regional Court in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The ConCourt also ordered that she personally cover 15% of the SARB’s legal costs in the case.
In an interview with
The Citizen, political economy analyst Daniel Silke said the public protector’s remarks could be seen as undermining the country’s judiciary.
“Those who have had judgments against them often want to criticise the system or to disparage the broader system. We are moving into an era in which the justice system and its bona fide is questioned in this way. It delegitimises such a critical foundation of the country,” Silke said.