JUDGES SLAM ‘DECEITFUL’ ATTORNEY

Lawyer rewrote judgment by magistrate, police say

An Eastern Cape attorney, who assisted a magistrate to rewrite a judgment awarding her six clients damages against the police ministry, was described as unprofessional and deceitful by two high court judges.

Judges Tembekile Malusi and Mbulelo Jolwana say in a scathing judgment that former Herschel magistrate Linda Vowana’s misconduct in allowing an attorney to rewrite his judgment was “unprecedented in the annals of the judiciary in this country”.

“We hope it will never be repeated by any judicial officer,” they added.

Vowana has subsequently died.

The police ministry sought to review the judgment after discovering Vowana was not the one who penned it.

Komani-based attorney Zoleka Ponoane, who rewrote Vowana’s judgment, was not spared the judges’ wrath and has been referred to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) for investigation.

The court wants her probed for alleged fraud, dishonesty and for bringing the attorney’s profession into disrepute.

According to the judgment, police arrested Ponoane’s six clients in 2012 as they were suspected of being part of a group that had burnt down the home of a man the community believed had raped and murdered an elderly Sterkspruit women in 2012.

The six men were acquitted and later sued the police ministry for unlawful arrest and detention.

Vowana had written a draft judgment and inexplicably faxed the unsigned four-page document only to Ponoane. After a telephonic discussion with Ponoane, she had redrafted the judgment with extensive amendments and additions. She sent the amended 10-page judgment back to Vowana who then signed it as the official judgment.

It was only after damages had been paid out to Ponoane’s six clients that it came to the attention of the staff at the police ministry that there had been gross misconduct in the writing of the judgment.

A corruption case was later opened against the magistrate by police in Sterkspruit.

Before his death, Vowana submitted a statement to police saying he had been called by Ponoane who raised concerns about the format in

Her own craftiness and deceit is palpable and in our view has brought the attorneys’ profession into disrepute

which the judgment was written.

“She further informed me that there was a better format that she had seen from a certain advocate with whom she handled another civil matter.

“Mrs Ponoane and I agreed that she was to rewrite my judgment, meaning the same judgment I already gave her, in the same manner she had seen, without altering the content of my judgment.”

He said “there was no favour or benefit of any kind to anybody in the process”.

Ponoane on Thursday could not be reached for comment.

The judges said the conduct of both the magistrate and attorney was “unconstitutional, disgraceful, dishonest and an unlawful abuse of the judicial authority which the constitution vests in the courts”.

“It was dishonest and crafty for the magistrate to have no compunction at all at having had secret liaisons with the plaintiffs’ attorney about a matter in which he presided.

“Similarly [Ponoane] who, after all, is an officer of this court, perhaps blinded by dishonesty and unprofessionalism, sees nothing wrong with what they both did.

“Her own craftiness and deceit is palpable and in our view has brought the attorneys’ profession into disrepute.”