Acting judge sanctioned in his attorney days

An attorney sanctioned in 2004 by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) for unethical conduct is now acting as a judge of the same court. According to a Netwerk24 report, Gibson Oupa Ngobeni (47) was struck from the roll of attorneys – suspended for three years – for irregularities regarding claims submitted by his firm to LegalWise. Ngobeni's firm also paid commission of 5% to agents of LegalWise to refer clients to him, Judge Chris Botha noted at the time. The judgment also noted that Ngobeni’s signature was affixed to the false compensation claims, but the Law Society could not prove Ngobeni was aware of the false claims submitted by his firm. Ngobeni did, however, admit his office paid commission; that he didn’t sufficiently supervise his office personnel, and didn’t store clients’ information for the prescribed periods. Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo reportedly said he was aware of the judgment against Ngobeni when the acting appointment was made, but that Ngobeni ‘didn’t personally do anything wrong’. Mlambo added that the period of suspension has lapsed and that Ngobeni’s record since had been clean. Ngobeni is acting in the circuit courts in Mpumalanga.