Malesela Teffo asks magistrate to recuse himself as case postponed to July

Advocate Malesela Teffo, who was arrested in court during Senzo Meyiwa’s murder trial, wants the magistrate presiding his case to recuse himself.

Teffo made a brief appearance in the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court on Friday, where his lawyer, Tshepo Thobane, revealed that they have laid a complaint against Magistrate Bradshaw with the authorities.

While Thobane asked that the matter be transferred to a different court, Teffo’s case has been postponed to July for submissions.

“Your matter is now postponed to the 8th of July back in this court.

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“It is for the state to proceed to bring the application it wishes to bring together with the court dealing with the application by the defence to recuse itself in the matter. Your bail is extended until then at 08:30 on the 8th of July,” Magistrate Bradshaw said.

Teffo, who is currently out on R10,000 bail, is the defence advocate representing four of the suspects accused of murdering former Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa in 2014.

Police arrived at the Pretoria High Court on 28 April to arrest Teffo while the murder trial was underway.

At the time, police said Teffo was arrested because he missed a previous court appearance.

Teffo arrest

Questions have since been raised about the timing and place of Teffo’s arrest.

Even Chief Justice Raymond Zondo criticised the arrest, saying it showed disrespect for the judiciary.

“The Chief Justice wishes to make it clear that the arrest of anybody, let alone a legal practitioner, inside a court room is completely unacceptable and should not have happened.

READ MORE: Advocate Malesela Teffo threatens to sue Minister Bheki Cele and police over his arrest in court

“In this regard, it should be remembered that this was the same court room in which advocate Teffo appeared representing his clients,” Zondo said.

“There was no justifiable reason why the Saps could not have waited for advocate Teffo to leave the court room and the court premises before they could arrest him,” he further said.

Police explain why they had to arrest Advocate Teffo in court

Teffo was previously arrested by police on charges of common assault and trespassing after allegedly assaulting a female officer member and entering the South African Police Service (Saps) Gauteng provincial building, in contravention of a high court interdict prohibiting him from entering the premises.

The advocate failed to appear before the magistrate’s court on several occasions including on 27 January 2022, according to Saps.

A warrant of arrest was then issued and withheld.

ALSO READ: NPA throws Saps under the bus over Teffo arrest

“The case was remanded to 10 February 2022. Advocate Teffo was again not in court, and bail was finally forfeited to the state.

“An instruction was then issued by the court for the warrant of arrest to be executed,” Police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the Gauteng local division was not consulted and did not sanction the execution of the warrant of arrest against Teffo in court.