Teffo remains in jail after being dumped by new lawyer for not taking advice

Former advocate Malesela Teffo is once again left without a legal representative as his new lawyer withdrew on Wednesday following a disagreement between the two.

Teffo was to make his appearance before the Pretoria magistrate's court but for the third time, he refused to get into the courtroom. 

Instead, Teffo again remained in the court holding cells as he stood firm in his opinion that he was not charged since he still has not given his fingerprints.

This is the same battle he has put forth in  each court appearance since his arrest on August 1.

Teffo has continued to defy a court order to submit his fingerprints.

His lawyer, Eddie Maloba, told TimesLIVE that he and Teffo could not reach an agreement when it came to submitting fingerprints.

"I said if he feels the state is not doing things correctly, he can have a recourse against the state in the civil court, which he can do after having complied with the request of fingerprints, but we didn’t agree on this. After that, I felt we were in a stalemate and there was no progress."

The state requested the matter to be postponed in Teffo’s absence for further investigation, which would again delay the matter.

"This would practically mean we will not proceed, so I decided to withdraw on record," he said.

The state has outlined that Teffo was partially charged and the only thing outstanding were his fingerprints.

The ongoing back-and-forth led to Teffo’s initial legal representative, Advocate Nombeko Mabena and attorney Ike Khumalo, withdrawing from the case on August 10 after he again declined to take their advice and refused to enter the courtroom.

Maloba came in a week later, where he had to convince Teffo to come out of the cells and stand in the dock once again.

By that time, Teffo had still not submitted his fingerprints and instead gave a list of different reasons  as to why he would not comply.

The main being that he did not want the current investigating officer handling his case, claiming that the said cop had manhandled him during his arrest.

"For progress' sake, I wanted him to give the fingerprints and it be well-documented. The state is blaming this on him and he is blaming this on them and I felt he should have given the fingerprints and then challenged this at a higher court."

"I had to withdraw because I saw no progress of coming to court and to postpone and keep him in the cells while I’m in court… I am still open to assisting if he reconsiders his stance on the issue of the fingerprints. This is where he and I differ but in all other aspects, we agree," Maloba said.

Teffo is facing charges of theft, assault, malicious damage to property and possession of suspected stolen property.

The matter has been postponed to October 11 2023 for further investigations.

TimesLIVE