The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein refused to grant a judge, who allegedly while he was an attorney misappropriated funds belonging to a child, a stay of prosecution. A FREE State judge has failed in his latest bid for a permanent stay of prosecution of his theft, alternatively money laundering trial over alleged misappropriation of Road Accident Fund (RAF) money for a client. The case stemmed from the time when Bloemfontein Judge Mpina Abednego Mathebula was still an attorney.
Mathebula had subsequently turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) after the Free State High Court earlier turned down his application. He faces criminal proceedings, together with his former candidate attorney, in a regional court ranging from theft to alternative charges of money laundering and fraud. He conducted his practice under the name of Uys Mathebula Attorneys, in Sasolburg, Free State.
He is alleged to have committed the crimes between July 2012 and May 2018, while practicing as an attorney. An elderly woman had instructed Mathebula’s law firm to institute an action against the RAF on behalf of her young grandson, who had sustained injuries in a car accident. The claim was settled with the RAF and the high court made part of the settlement agreement an order of court, awarding the child R2.2 million plus costs, to be paid by the RAF.
