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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
THE High Court has ordered a Bulawayo law firm, Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners to be placed under curatorship and suspended its senior partner Mr Tonderai Mukuku from practising after the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) detected acts of misconduct.

The ruling by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese follows an urgent chamber application by the LSZ which sought an order to have the law firm placed under curatorship.

In papers before the court, LSZ said Mr Mukuku abandoned his offices and left the law firm in the hands of his assistants who did not possess practising certificates.

In the court papers, LSZ cited Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners and Mr Mukuku as the respondents.

Justice Makonese directed LSZ to appoint its deputy executive secretary, Wilbert Pfungwadzashe Mandinde as curator.

Curatorship means that the law firm will cease operations and someone from outside the organisation is put in charge to manage its activities.

The judge also ordered the LSZ to immediately take control of Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners’ trust accounts and administer them.

Mandinde, in his founding affidavit, said the respondent committed acts of unprofessional conduct by deserting the office leaving behind his unlicensed assistants to illegally run the operations of the law firm without practising certificates.

“This an urgent chamber application for an order to place under curatorship the second respondent (Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners) and to suspend the first respondent (Mr Mukuku) from practising as a legal practitioner as well as to appoint applicant as represented by its deputy executive secretary as curator,” he said.

“On March 16, 2017, the applicant received a resolution from its council that the first respondent be suspended from practising as a legal practitioner after he abandoned his offices thus the law firm was being operated by assistants who do not possess practising certificates.”

LSZ said Mr Mukuku had failed or neglected to respond to correspondence from its executive secretary who had issued letters against the law firm.

“It has therefore become necessary that the applicant be given the mandate to step in and take control of Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners considering that the first respondent has abandoned his offices,” said Mr Mandinde.

LSZ is threatened with claims amounting to $3 million emanating from theft, fraud, forgery and dishonest practices from its members, with deregistered Bulawayo law firm Cheda and Partners having the highest claim at $1million.

The LSZ administers a fund to compensate members of the public who incur losses due to theft, fraud and other dishonest practices committed either by a registered legal practitioner or their employees.

Last year, another Bulawayo law firm, James Mutsauki Attorneys was placed under curatorship and its owner’s practising certificate was cancelled over alleged fraudulent transactions amounting to more than $30 000.

In the last three years, 12 firms have been placed under curatorship. Cheda and Partners was shut down in April 2015 after the LSZ detected alleged fraudulent transactions running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The law firm’s demise first saw its three senior partners, Sindiso Mazibisa, Mlamuli Ncube and Nqobizitha Ndlovu surrendering their practising certificates.

They were later suspended by the LSZ pending fraud investigations, one of which was the alleged theft of $335 000, held in trust, by Mr Mazibisa.

@mashnets