Pretoria - A Johannesburg advocate who has milked the public purse by millions, which included charging the government R34.4 million in legal fees for a case in which he defended the minister of police against a damages claim, has been struck from the roll.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg made it clear that Hassan Kajee was dishonest and definitely not fit to hold the office of an advocate.
The application against him was launched by the Johannesburg Society of Advocates, following a number of scathing previous judgments against him.
He was at first suspended from the profession, pending further investigations into his conduct, which subsequently led to him being barred from any further practice.
In 2018 in the matter of Minister of Police v Kunene the court made certain findings against Kajee, whose conduct amounted to collusive, corrupt and fraudulent dealings between him and the state attorney.
In that case, it not only emerged not only that Kajee charged the state more than R34m in legal fees, which he was paid, but that he also settled that matter on behalf of the minister (without the knowledge of the minister) for an amount of about R34m.
At the centre of that application, which featured in the judgment issued this week axing him from the profession, former head of the office of the state Attorney in Johannesburg, the conduct of Kgosi Gustav Lekabe, and Kajee came under the spotlight.
It appeared they were in cahoots in settling the case of Ayanda Kunene, who claimed damages from the police after he was shot during a hijacking.
It appeared that Lekabe, the instructing attorney, and Kajee, who appeared for the minister, conspired to obtain the settlement behind the back of the minister’s office.
It also appeared that Kajee invoiced the minister’s office for work done at a rate of R66 522 a day for 517 consecutive days – running into the millions – despite the fact that the matter had been “settled”.
The office of the minister only realised what was happening after Kunene wanted his R34m settlement, but never got it. He then got an order to sell off the state’s assets to get his money. But the state coffers were spared in time following an application by the minister to have the R34m “settlement” overturned.
In its present application, the Society of Advocates said it was clear that Kajee overcharged the state and fraudulently settled the Kunene matter.
It was said that the public, the fiscus and organs of state could not be exposed to him. The court was also told that he had received more than R34m in legal fees from the state between April 2017 and August 2081.
He charged nearly R67 000 per day to act for the minister, an amount which the society said was impossible to claim, as the highest rate for any counsel was R25 000 a day.
When asked about these amounts, Kajee denied that he had charged too much. While denying any wrongdoing, he refused to hand over his financial documents to the society, as he was ordered to do earlier by another court.
Judge Motsamai Makume said there was no evidence that Kajee’s dishonesty would stop and it was thus in the interest of the public and justice that he be allowed to no longer practise as an advocate.
Pretoria News