Attorney Zuko Nonxuba, accused of misappropriating hundreds of millions of rands in medical negligence payouts for severely disabled children, has finally been suspended from practice after years of legal wrangling, reports News24.
Nonxuba and his firm had lodged nearly R1bn in medical negligence claims against the Western and Eastern Cape Health Departments, many of which are allegedly fraudulent. The attorney was paid out R118m for medical negligence claims he lodged against the Eastern Cape Health Department between September 2013 and February 2017.
On Tuesday (19 April) Western Cape High Court Judge Gcinikhaya Nuku granted an order that interdicted Nonxuba from continuing to practise as an attorney, pending an application by the Legal Practice Council (LPC) to have him permanently struck from the roll of attorneys. That application must be lodged within the next four months.
The LPC had applied for Nonxuba to be blocked from continuing to practise law after discovering glaring financial irregularities in the trust accounts. Nuku found the documents the attorney had tried to use to demonstrate his innocence “show that the accounting records have indeed been fabricated”.
“As submitted on behalf of the LPC, it is in the interest of Mr Nonxuba’s clients, the court, the public and the profession that Mr Nonxuba be urgently interdicted from practice on the terms outlined in the LPC'’s amended conditional notice of motion,” the judge stated.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Attorney facing criminal charges and disbarment wins more negligence claims
Eastern Cape Health interdicts attorney's R79m payout move
SIU finds legal practitioner corruption in negligence claims; Mkhize wants 'no-fault' fund
The 'deplorable pathology' of medico-legal litigation
Attorney accused of R30m medical fraud granted bail