Winding up on hold for lawyer
The urgent application prominent local attorney Tumi Mokwena was to bring for suspension of a court order to have Tumi Mokwena Incorporated placed under final winding up on 12 December, was struck from the roll until further notice by Judge Gerrit Muller in the Limpopo High Court on Tuesday.
Muller also recused himself from the matter. According to information Mokwena reportedly insisted that another judge be appointed as Muller had presided in a previous case involving Mokwena.
This follows a court order issued by Judge
Frans Kgomo on 12 December that the firm be placed under final winding up and costs of the application are costs in the liquidation thereof.
Mokwena, on behalf of the firm informed the High Court that it intends to bring an urgent application before court on Tuesday that the ruling of placing the company under final winding up be suspended and/or stayed pending the final determination of the rescission application served and filed by Tumi Mokwena Incorporated on 17 December. In his application he would have further submitted that the costs of the application be paid by any of the respondents who may oppose the application and that Mokwena’s firm be granted further or alternative relief.
In an affidavit by Mokwena he is quoted saying: “The order of 12 December 2019 has far-reaching consequences which also affect me personally whereas I am not a party to the main litigation in my personal capacity. The person authorised and/or admitted by the High Court to practice law is myself in my personal capacity, not the applicant (Tumi Mokwena Incorporated) as a body corporate. On this ground alone, the order of 12 December 2019 has to be stayed in that it will cause substantial injustice to me on my personal capacity in so far as my rights overlap with those of the applicant.”
The order of 12 December was issued after a protracted legal battle over alleged unpaid debt with local businessman Sthembiso Bosch.
During previous court sittings Bosch successfully argued that Mokwena had allegedly failed on numerous occasions to honour an agreement for the repayment of debt which was made an order of court involving R1,5 million.
Bosch reportedly paid the money through the Majola Trust of which he is a trustee, into Tumi Mokwena Incorporated’s trust account for a property transaction which did not materialise and the money has not been returned.
Mokwena indicated that he did not wish to comment until the matter has been finalised.