Johannesburg – Prominent lawyer Barnabas Xulu has frozen one of the accounts of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries amid a tussle over R20-million in legal fees paid to him.
The department was in talks with Xulu, who has represented Western Cape judge president John Hlophe on several cases, regarding the funds.
Xulu, who has been in a protracted battle with the department, was paid for getting a multimillion- rand reparations settlement amount in lieu of lobster and hake that was plundered from the country’s seas by a Hout Bay fishing company.
A US court ordered in 2017 that the late Cape Town businessman Arnold Bengis pay South Africa $37-million (over R500-million) for plundering lobster from the country’s seas.
Xulu has since appealed the decision to set aside the service level agreement to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
In January last year, the Western Cape High Court declared a service level agreement and settlement agreement between the department and Xulu’s law firm, B Xulu and Partners Incorporated (BXI), invalid and ordered the firm to pay back the money.
Sunday World has seen communication between the office of the State Attorney and Xulu, in which the department argues that the frozen account – which has in excess of R8-million – should be reopened.
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In one of the emails sent to Standard Bank, Leon Manuel from the office of the State Attorney told the bank’s Taybah Osmany to uplift the attachment of the account since Xulu had gone to the SCA.
Xulu attached the account – into which citizens pay for exporting agricultural products – through a court order. Osmany told Manuel that only a court order could lift the attachment on the account.
“We advised your client the bank required the sheriff to serve a notice of upliftment on the bank. However, same was not received,” Osmany said.
The department has also moved to reject Xulu’s conditions for an out-of-court settlement.
Manuel had written to Xulu saying that “in an endeavour to reach some finality in relation to this matter, our client is desirous that the parties engage in a process in relation to the BXI invoices rendered and which are the matter of dispute in lieu of a long drawn out expensive court process”.
“Regarding the Bengis matter, our client disputes the extent of your client’s claimed involvement since the litigation was conducted by the US Attorney’s Office. Furthermore, it is disputed that your clients are entitled to rates in accordance with the set-aside service level agreement or that they are entitled to any of the contingency fees,” Manuel said, in a letter on June 22.
The popular attorney, who was part of the Friends of Jacob Zuma campaign, obtained a writ and received the money via the sheriff after repeated requests for payment fell on deaf ears.
He used the money to pay the debt including a USbased firm, his lawyer Isaac Shai told the court.
In October last year, the Western Cape High Court ordered that Xulu’s assets – including his home in the upmarket Ballito in KwaZulu- Natal, a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS and his law firms’ accounts – be frozen. Xulu has since appealed the matter at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
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