Durban - An advocate who was attacked and beaten outside a rural Mpumalanga court last week, for representing two men accused of kidnapping and murdering a toddler, said on Tuesday the incident would not deter him from doing his job.
“People say: Why don’t you just withdraw from the case?” Nico du Plessis said. “But I say: No, I won’t. Everyone is entitled to legal representation of their choice. I can’t just abandon them (his clients).”
The matter was last in court on Friday and was postponed until Wednesday.
But after the attack and several requests to the Director of Public Prosecutions, it had been decided the case should be transferred from Tonga to the Nelspruit Regional Court, Du Plessis said.
Luis Sithole, Sfiso Mazibe, Themba Myambo and Jabulani Ndlovu have been charged with kidnapping 3-year-old Lutricia Nkentjane last year and murdering her. The little girl’s body has not been found.
Du Plessis represents Myambo and Ndlovu and on Friday, he said in the Tonga court, where the matter was heard, he would be applying for bail for them.
Recounting the attack and the events leading up to it, Du Plessis said members of the public who were sitting in the gallery became rowdy after the matter was postponed.
As he exited the court, the mob accosted him. “They grabbed me by my tie and dragged me out through the gate,” he said.
The mob kicked and beat the advocate. “In all my years practising law, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” he said, “They were screaming: ‘He must be killed’.”
The attack was stopped by the police.
Du Plessis has since prepared a statement and said he would be laying criminal charges.
Legal experts and organisations have expressed shock at the attack, with some calling it an assault on the justice system.
Among them was the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Managay Reddi, a law professor who said on Tuesday Du Plessis was just doing his job. “There is nothing illegal about representing persons accused of the murder of a child,” she said.
All accused persons were innocent until proven guilty, Reddi said.
“This entitles anyone accused of having committed a crime to seek and be accorded legal representation. This also means there is no prohibition on whom a lawyer may represent,” she said.
In a statement released by the Black Lawyers’ Association, its president, Lutendo Benedict Sigogo, said the attack was “barbaric” and a cause for serious concern.
He added that the moment lawyers felt threatened to take some cases, it signalled the collapse of one of the pillars of democracy: the rule of law. “We will not be surprised if, in the event of the arrest of these criminals (those responsible for attacking Du Plessis), they engage legal practitioners who are colleagues of the victim to represent them in court,” Sigogo added.
Chairman of the Justice Project South Africa, Howard Dembovsky, said the attack showed people did not understand the mechanics of the justice system.
“People need to be educated on how the justice system works.”
Dembovsky said the attack was fuelled by people’s impatience with the justice system.
“It’s very easy, when you’re not an accused to say, ‘Hurry up’, but you need to ask yourself if you were ever accused of a crime, would you be happy with the courts just taking a cursory glance at your matter?”
Daily News