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A bogus attorney who conned a businessman out of tens of thousands of rands is finally heading to prison after the Johannesburg magistrate’s court activated his suspended three-year sentence.
Senior magistrate Pieter du Plessis revoked Zuko Madikane’s freedom on Friday by invoking Section 297(9) of the Criminal Procedure Act after Madikane failed to pay court-ordered restitution.
The case dates back to 2019, when Madikane and his co-accused, Judge Sibanda, posed as an attorney and an advocate to defraud the owner of a high-turnover News Cafe in Newtown.
Galesitoe paid the bogus lawyers R88,000 under the illusion that they were handling an urgent high court matter on his behalf.
According to the state, the scam directly contributed to the collapse of Galesitoe’s R12m-a-year business.
On September 20, 2023, the court sentenced Madikane to three years in prison. The sentence was wholly suspended on the strict condition that he repay R44,000 of the stolen funds to the victim. The court also sentenced Sibanda to nine months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition he pays R10,000 to Galesitoe.
Rather than complying with the order to compensate Galesitoe, Madikane and Sibanda launched dual legal challenges. They submitted applications for leave to appeal their fraud convictions and sentences, escalating the matter first to the Johannesburg high court and then to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Both higher courts dismissed their applications, closing off all legal avenues to overturn their conviction.
Under Section 297(9) of the Criminal Procedure Act, a judicial officer is empowered to enforce an original punishment if the explicit conditions of suspension are violated.
With the breach confirmed, Madikane’s three-year suspended term was on Friday put into direct operation and he will begin serving his time immediately. In the case of Sibanda, Du Plessis on Friday further suspended the nine-months’ imprisonment for five years on condition that he deposits R10,000 with the clerk of the Johannesburg magistrate’s court.
The court ordered Sibanda to deposit R2,000 on Friday, R4,000 before the end of June and R4,000 before the end of July.
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