AZANIAN People’s Liberation Army (Apla) veteran Mangaliso Petse has accused and reported law firm Thomson Wilks to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) for allegedly receiving payment from the Department of Defence and Military Veterans in an ongoing case between him and the department.
This was after the law firm received an amount of more than R290 000 from the department. The money was allegedly paid on February 7, 2023 through Thomson Wilks’ trust account.
Petse joined Apla in exile in 1987, at the age of 14. He has been in a dispute with the department after he was paid a one-off lump-sum of R52 629 and told that this was all he would get in terms of the Military Veterans Act regulations.
Petse returned to South Africa with permanent injuries in 1993 and qualified for an 80% disability rating in terms of the Military Pensions Act. However, the department refused to pay him an annual pension. He launched a court challenge in the South Gauteng High Court in 2016.
He said Thomson Wilks’ director Bartho van Tonder allegedly told him that he did not know what the money was intended for, and later told him that he could use it to pay legal fees.
However, Van Tonder said although it was not clear what the complaint was, he was aware of it and the affidavit that was submitted to the LPC. He confirmed that the law firm recovered R290 533.47, but said it was from the Department of Justice pursuant to a cost order against them in the case “we successfully prosecuted for Mr Petse”.
“The money was for legal costs as taxed by the taxing master of court following the above order. I will send a copy of the allocatur below (costs allowed by the taxing master to be paid by the unsuccessful litigator, in this case the Department of Defence and Military Veterans), which placed a legal obligation on them to make the payment,” Van Tonder said.
He said the money was deposited without a reference that was identified as being applicable to a specific case. “When we contacted the bank, they advised it was received from the Department of Justice. They then advised it was for Mr Petse's matter,” said Van Tonder.
Military Veterans spokesperson Lebogang Mothapa said she would respond on Thursday, but failed to do so.
LPC spokesperson Kabelo Letebele said the council was waiting for the practitioner to respond to the matter. He said this could take a month.
“When you we get a complaint we a practitioner an opportunity to respond and once he has responded we also engage the complainant to say this is a feedback that we getting from a practitioner. And once we got both sides we package the information for consideration by the investigations committee and it’s only that the committee can decide if the practitioner has a case to respond to or whether or not we dismiss the matter,’’ he said.
In a letter sent to Petse on April 26, LPC legal official Zinhle Mashaba confirmed receipt of the complaint and said it had been referred to Van Tonder for comment.
Petse said Van Tonder told him that the payment was to satisfy the legal costs following a judgment awarded in his favour after he terminated his service in January this year.
In his affidavit, Petse said he informed the attorneys about his intentions to open a case with the SAPS for an investigation into the actual circumstances surrounding the payment into the law firm’s trust account.
“The attorneys advised me that there was no need for me to take such action since there was a possibility that this payment was done by an official from the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, who was not informed that my matter had been taken on appeal since there are plenty of other similar matters involving payments that they are dealing with daily,” said Petse.
He said when he sent a communication to the attorneys informing them about his perspective funder for his legal matter, Van Tonder said he would see if could make a reference to the payment.