Criminals and lawyers have a lot in common, including appearing in court, but you can't be both. And this is something former Azanian People's Liberation Army (Apla) commander and former South African National Defence Force sergeant Ntsikelelo Mdyogolo has learnt the hard way.The High Court in Grahamstown rejected his application for admission to the roll of attorneys after hearing about his criminal career in the '90s.It included theft and shooting a petrol attendant with a semi-automatic rifle during an armed robbery.story_article_left1Mdyogolo, 47, from Queenstown, studied law after his release from prison and did so well that part of his student loan was converted into a bursary. He also finished his articles in record time.The aspirant lawyer hoped to improve his life and take care of his ailing mother. But contradictions in his accounts of the robbery to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the court saw his dream unravel last month.Not even PAC president Luthando Mbinda's pleas to the court could save his robes.In his application for amnesty, Mdyogolo told the TRC the robbery was a trap set up by police.He claimed a policeman, Welile Ngobeni, and PAC operatives invited him to a party in Mdantsane on June 19 1994 and "fed me with lots of liquor, all kinds of beer, brandy and wine". He was then taken to Fort Beaufort, where Ngobeni handed him the rifle and they robbed a petrol station.He told the court last year the robbery was part of the "repossession of the wealth of the African people", to raise funds for the PAC.Judge Clive Plasket found him to be dishonest and "unwilling to take responsibility".Mdyogolo stole a Cliff Richard cassette from Shoprite Checkers in 1991, and was fined R200. In the Fort Beaufort robbery, he stole about R2,000 and petrol.Mdyogolo skipped bail and was integrated into the SANDF, only to be rearrested and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in 1997. In 2010, he was fined R1,500 for drunken driving."Certain stark realities emerge from this short history: by 19 June 1994, when [Mdyogolo] took part in the robbery, the armed struggle was over, liberation had been achieved and a democratically elected parliament, which included members of the PAC, made laws in terms of the interim constitution," Plasket ruled.story_article_right2"His account of the robbery in his amnesty application is both bizarre and nonsensical. The version of events that he placed before the TRC in 1998 - a version he gave under oath - was clearly mendacious, and transparently so."This week, Mdyogolo said he would appeal. "The judgment is so irrational, humiliating, and has a bearing of hatred which is aimed at demoralising all people who were freedom fighters," he said.Mdyogolo was released on parole in 2004 and enrolled for a law degree at the University of Fort Hare. He said his mother, who died seven days before last month's judgment, supported him with her state pension.The Cape Law Society accepted Mdyogolo's explanation that the robbery was politically motivated and endorsed his application, but Plasket said: "With the greatest of respect to the Cape Law Society, those who considered the application could not have applied their minds."The most perfunctory reading of the founding affidavit would have raised a red flag: the date 27 April 1994 is an iconic date, and is perhaps the most important date in the history of South Africa - the day the new, democratic South Africa was born; as the date of the robbery was nearly two months later, it should have been apparent that the explanation that [Mdyogolo] committed the offence in the course of the armed struggle was unlikely to be true."..