Africa-Press – South-Africa. Suspended lawyer Tumi Mokwena was on Tuesday placed under provisional sequestration by the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo.
The sequestration order came on the heels of his suspension as an attorney by the same court two weeks ago.
The application for his sequestration – brought by liquidators Adriaan van Rooyen and Shirley Motimele – also came after his law firm, Tumi Mokwena Incorporated (TMI), was placed under liquidation in 2019.
In court on Tuesday, Judge M Makweya heard that Mokwena had failed to submit court papers since the matter was last postponed in early February this year.
Mokwena and his attorney were not in court.
In court papers, the liquidators alleged Mokwena was concealing and alienating assets of his law firm to the detriment of its creditors.
Limpopo lawyer Tumi Mokwena suspended from practicing
They said Mokwena founded Dikwenanyana Trust, of which he is a trustee, together with his mother and his personal assistant Desire Chuene (nee Duvenhage).
“From the financial investigations, it appears that most of the TMI funds were irregularly transferred either directly from the trust account to Mokwena and Dikwenanyana.
“What truly transpired was that TMI was abused as a vehicle through which the respondent (Mokwena) misappropriated TMI funds and apparently defrauded innocent third parties and members of the public, amounting to millions of rands.
“The applicants have a reasonable apprehension that the respondent is concealing his and/or TMI’s assets in Dikwenanyana Trust to the detriment of the creditors,” the liquidators said.
The judge accepted a draft order for sequestration, with a return date of 1 June 2022 for Mokwena to argue why the order should not be made final.
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