Times Of Swaziland: ADVOCATE HELLENS WAS ONCE CHARGED - LSS

ADVOCATE HELLENS WAS ONCE CHARGED - LSS
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 BY MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE  on 11/09/2019 00:57:00


MBABANE - The LSS says the South African advocate who is prosecuting in the
murder trial of Sipho Shongwe failed to disclose relevant information in his
application for admission.
The Law Society of Swaziland (LSS) is vigorously opposing the application for
admission filed by Advocate Michael Robert Hellens.
Advocate Hellens, who was once an acting judge of the High Court of South
Africa, is accused of having failed to disclose that he was once charged with
unprofessional conduct.
Gift
During his tenure as an acting judge, Hellens is alleged to have taken a bag
containing R500 000 in cash as a ‘gift’ from self-confessed tobacco smuggler
and alleged fraudster Adriano Mazzotti.
Mazzotti was once accused of being a major benefactor of the African National
Congress (ANC) presidential campaign of Nkosazane Zuma-Dlamini, an allegation he
denied.  He also reportedly sponsored the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF),
enabling the party to contest the 2014 general elections.
Mazzotti has emerged as a central character in The President Keepers:  those who
kept Zuma in power and out of prison.
In his opposing affidavit, LSS Secretary General Thulani Maseko submitted that
when vetting Hellens, the society discovered that he had neglected to state that
he was once charged with unprofessional conduct for having accepted an amount of
R500 000 as a ‘gift’.  Maseko pointed out that the story about Hellens
appeared in the South African Sunday Times of November 5, 2017.
He highlighted that according to the articles, Hellens admitted to having
accepted the said amount and was accordingly reprimanded by the Johannesburg Bar
Council.
Maseko averred that Hellens failed to set out in full, details of his alleged
unprofessional conduct and the charges he faced during his disciplinary hearing.
“He has failed to detail the outcome of his disciplinary hearing and thereby
depriving the court the opportunity to satisfy itself that he is a proper person
to practise and admitting him to the profession in this jurisdiction involves no
danger to the public and no danger to the good name of the profession,” argued
Maseko.
Misconduct
He emphasised that Hellens did not set out the full details of his alleged
misconduct and without that, the High Court of Eswatini should not admit him.
The LSS secretary general further told the court that the director of public
prosecutions (DPP), who had instructed Hellens, also failed to demonstrate the
need for a non- resident advocate and why local advocates could not properly
handle Shongwe’s criminal trial.
Maseko contended that what further compounded the situation was that the office
of the DPP employed personnel who had been practising criminal law for over 20
years.
“It is therefore inconceivable that the DPP would fail to handle the matter
proceedings (Shongwe’s murder trial),” contended Maseko.
He told the court that on that premise alone, it was submitted that the High
Court should not grant Hellens the right of audience.
“It is on that premise that the LSS respectfully avers that Hellens has failed
to satisfy the requirements for admission of a non-resident advocate as set out
in Section 5 (2) as read with Section 28 to 30 of the Legal Practitioners
Act,” submitted the LSS secretary general.
Maseko told the court that on September 4, 2019, the council of the Law Society
met to discuss Hellens’s application.  He claimed that it was during this
meeting that the council resolved to oppose the application and authorised him
in his capacity as the secretary general to depose to an affidavit in opposition
to Hellens’s application.
Hellens’s application will be argued on September 16, 2019 before Chief
Justice Bheki Maphalala