'Drunk’ lawyer’s conduct to be probed

A LAWYER faces sanction from the Legal Practice Council for representing her fraud-accused client while admitting to having been “very drunk”.

Judge Francis Kganyago ruled at the Polokwane High Court that the council should probe the conduct and behaviour of the lawyer he named as Ms Maloko in his scathing judgment.

Not only was Maloko drunk during magistrate court proceedings on December 1, 2020, she also admitted that she did not know what she was doing in court because she was a conveyancer and not a crime lawyer.

Judge Kganyago also received representation from the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, who conceded that Maloko’s behaviour had scuppered her client’s trial.

“(Maloko) has conceded that she was very drunk in relation to the proceedings of December 1, 2020. In her own words she said she was ’very drunk’,” said Judge Kganyago, adding that the client was as good as not having been represented during the trial.