Dali Mpofu SC has been called to a disciplinary inquiry before the Legal Practice Council’s (LPC) disciplinary committee.
He is facing seven charges of breaching the code of conduct for legal practitioners — including bringing the profession into disrepute, impugning people’s characters and failing in his duty to the court.
The LPC has asked Mpofu to appear before its disciplinary committee on April 30.
Certain charges relate to Mpofu’s professional conduct during the parliamentary impeachment inquiry of former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
The charge sheet accuses Mpofu of impugning the character of Mkhwebane’s predecessor, Thuli Madonsela.
Mpofu spent “many hours” cross-examining Madonsela “attempting to impugn her character, when he should have known that her answers would not be material to her credibility or any material issue”.
Another charge concerns the chairperson of the inquiry, Qubudile Dyantyi, to whom Mpofu said “You will pay one day”, adding that this was “not a threat, it’s a promise”.
Mpofu impugned the character of former SA Revenue Service official Johann van Loggerenberg during the impeachment inquiry, “insinuating that he was not of sound mind”.
Two charges related to his conduct at the Judicial Service Commission interviews in February 2022. One relates to a remark he made during the interviewing of Chief Justice Mandisa Maya (then President of the Supreme Court of Appeal).
The second charge concerned a line of questioning that “descended into a character assassination” of Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo.
Finally, a Johannesburg high court judgment in 2022 raised concern about a letter sent to the three judges in a matter which “reprimanded [the bench] for having the impertinence to request clarification on the issues which fall for determination”.