A sum of R120,000 to attend two workshops, R21,000 for six hours of telephonic consultation and R7,000 to drive from Pretoria to Johannesburg to deliver documents — these are the fees a lawyer has charged Unisa for services rendered.
Senamile Ndaba submitted four invoices totalling almost R494,000 to the university for payment for 11 days’ work, which included R120,000 to prepare for and participate in two workshops.
She submitted the invoices to acting executive director of legal services Prof Vuyo Peach.
TimesLIVE established that Ndaba’s law firm, S Pearl Ndaba, established in 2016 and based in Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal, is not included on Unisa’s panel of approved attorneys.
The list, which was seen by TimesLIVE, names 45 law firms.
According to the firm’s website, she was admitted as an attorney in January 2016 and is responsible for family law, criminal and civil litigation, deceased estates and collections at her practice.
Two of the invoices she submitted included an amount of R177,500 for work related to a review application to the labour court and R166,249 for a legal opinion on salary adjustments of R92m paid to Unisa staff.
The other two invoices were for attending two workshops to discuss how to handle employees who had participated in an unprotected strike.
Her hourly rate, according to an invoice dated June 3 for the amount of R177,500, was R2,800 and R3,500 for “urgent” matters.
Fees listed in the June 3 invoice included:
- Perusal of 940 pages of documents (four hours): R14,000
- Research (11 hours): R38,500
- Preparing notice and founding affidavit (nine hours): R31,500
- Collection of disc from labour court (two hours): R5,600
- Telephonic consultation with Prof Peach (six hours): R21,000
- Prepared report for client and legal opinion (seven hours): R24,500
Fees stated in another invoice, also dated June 3 and amounting to R166,249, included:
- Telephonic consultation with legal services (three hours): R10,500
- Drafting a legal opinion (14 hours): R49,000
- Reviewing the draft (nine hours): R31,500
- Redrafting and reviewing comments of head of legal services (14 hours): R49,000
Two other invoices submitted by Ndaba were for “attending and participation” in the two workshops, but minutes of the June 6 workshop she attended, which were seen by TimesLIVE, did not reflect she had made any input at the meeting.
Acting on behalf of Unisa, law firm SM Vakalisa said in a letter that when a legal firm is instructed by an institution “the first point of departure is to agree on the hourly rate to be charged by the firm”.
“In the current situation regarding invoices submitted by SP Ndaba Attorneys, our instructions are that the invoices have been approved for payment as is standard procedure. This applies to all other invoices submitted by attorneys who provide legal services for our client which invoices are in excess of the invoice submitted by SP Ndaba Attorneys.
“It is wrong and false to say the statement of fees submitted by SP Ndaba Attorneys is exorbitant. Our instructions are that this is, in fact, the lowest invoice when compared with invoices submitted by other law firms,” the letter stated.
A lawyer cannot charge R20,000 to prepare for a meeting and R40,000 to attend a meeting. If that is allowed in a public institution like Unisa, it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.
— Lawyer
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a corporate lawyer who was asked to comment on the fees charged by Ndaba said it was “exorbitant and unreasonable for the services said to have been rendered”.
“A lawyer cannot charge R20,000 to prepare for a meeting and R40,000 to attend a meeting. If that is allowed in a public institution like Unisa, it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Kabelo Letebele, spokesperson for the Legal Practice Council (LPC), which regulates the professional conduct of legal practitioners, said: “As the issues raised may become subject to a formal investigation and disciplinary charges, the LPC is not in a position to provide any comment on this specific case.
“The general principle, however, is that a legal practitioner is entitled to a reasonable fee for the work done. In matters that involve litigation, a client is always at liberty to request an attorney to prepare an itemised account and to have it taxed and assessed by the relevant taxing master.”
Ndaba, who was sent a detailed media enquiry asking her whether the fees charged were exorbitant, said as a legal professional she was bound by client confidentiality “so I won’t be commenting on any of the allegations made”.
Peach did not respond to queries.
