Legal Practice Council says Adv. Simo Chamani is not registered on their roll of legal practitioners

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Legal Practice Council says SAP's head of Legal Services Advocate Simo Chamani is not registered on their role of legal practitioners. Now, this follows a public complaint against the advocate.

[00:00:12]Joining us is Ignatious Briel, who is the LPC's Gauteng provincial director.

[00:00:18]Thank you very much for your time this afternoon, Ignatious. Talk to us about how this complaint landed at the LPC and what information you were given to, of course, not only look at whether or not uh this member is on the legal practitioners role.

[00:00:35]Yes, so we received a complaint from Mr. Tefu um to indicate that there are certain transgressions, according to him, um that was committed by Advocate uh Chimu.

[00:00:46]Um when the legal officer who dealt with the matter looked at our system internally, where we register all the practitioners in the country, she could not locate um this advocate on the role.

[00:00:58]Um we've subsequently, after sending that letter, we've done further investigations. We've been in contact with Advocate Chimu.

[00:01:06]And according to him, he is admitted as an advocate. Now, there's a bit of a history to this. Uh remember, prior to 2018, advocates were not registered by the law societies.

[00:01:18]They were registered separately.

[00:01:20]Um in 2018, we then had to include all the advocates as well as the attorneys into one consolidated role.

[00:01:29]Um we were reliant on records from Department of Justice.

[00:01:34]And even up to today, we are still finding uh advocates who had been admitted prior to 2018 who were not on that list of Department of Justice.

[00:01:45]And we are slowly but surely adding them as we come across them.

[00:01:49]So, we've been in contact with Advocate Chimu, and he will shortly be sending us his his details so that we can investigate if he's properly admitted by court and then we can enroll him.

[00:02:01]Yeah. So, at this particular point then it means that you await those documents to essentially substantiate the claim that he might have obviously been admitted prior to 2018. And I mean, you know, I was looking earlier at the process even of getting to that point even if, let's say, he was not registered with the LPC and has, for example, an LLB. Some would go into work of consultation.

[00:02:34]And that is why the issue around the work that he's doing at this current moment as the head of legal services is important because then it distinguishes between somebody who is practicing legally practicing in the country in line with our laws and somebody who may just be occupying an administrative role. Have you established you know, what the role is and the and the link to the allegations?

[00:03:03]So, at this stage we've not gone to that extent.

[00:03:06]We will definitely be looking into that.

[00:03:09]But you're quite right. I mean, when you get admitted as either an attorney or an advocate, you've got the option to either be practicing or non-practicing.

[00:03:18]And I think by far there's a larger percentage of admitted practitioners who are non-practicing role.

[00:03:28]So, it's not uncommon.

[00:03:36]All right. So, absolutely it's not uncommon. There I lost you a bit.

[00:03:40]You know, one would also say it it it also happens in situations where disbarred lawyers can no longer practice, but they still hold an LLB degree. And being debarred from practicing as a legal practitioner does not necessarily take away your qualification, and that's why some of those people would go into doing consultative work.

[00:04:08]That's exactly it. So, when you are struck from the roll, what it simply means is that you cannot practice as an advocate or an attorney. But there's no prohibition on you necessarily fulfilling a head of legal role or legal advisor role. I think the primary responsibility is on you to act ethically and to disclose to your potential employer that you have been struck from the roll. But legally, there's no prohibition on you being employed.

[00:04:36]Yeah, and of course, it brings about the conversations around, you know, the bar exams because some people would prefer to go through the pupilage through the bar. And of course, would still be required to write that LPC board exam.

[00:04:55]So, essentially, you know, it brings about those questions around whether or not there is a need to then consolidate all these processes to ensure that there is a streamlining of legal practitioners in the country.

[00:05:14]So, that was the intention with the Legal Practice Act. Um So, the primary route for admission as a legal practitioner is through or in fact, the only route is through the Legal Practice Council. Whether you are an an advocate or an attorney, you do need to write our admission examinations.

[00:05:33]Um what does happen in practice is that you've got the various bar associations.

[00:05:39]Mhm.

[00:05:41]These are basically voluntary groups that you can belong to.

[00:05:44]And it is within their rights to determine their own rules. So, you would for example have where you join, let's say, the Johannesburg Bar Association.

[00:05:54]Um that you would actually then have to write their exams as well. And there's nothing preventing that.

[00:06:01]Yeah. And in in case where you know, you find that the claim that he was admitted in before 2018 is not substantiated, what legal avenues can you explore?

[00:06:16]So, to hold yourself out as a legal practitioner if you are not admitted is a criminal offense. Um so, there is the possibility of criminal charges if it's found that he's holding himself out. Um but at this stage it's too early to to determine anything like that.

[00:06:33]All right. Thank you very much for your time. Ignatius Briel is the provincial director of the LPC's Gauteng office talking to us there about that story of the SAPS's head of legal services.