Fraud and disobedience: Legal counsel demands prison sentence for suspended lawyer who continues to practice

Notary specialist Zietta van Rensburg. (Zietta van Rensburg/Instagram)

The Legal Practice Council (LPC) is calling for lawyer Zietta Janse van Rensburg, who is accused of fraud, to be sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of court after appearing before the same judge who suspended her from practicing law.

Van Rensburg claimed she had a constitutional right to appear before Judge Brian Mashile of the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela because the case she was acting in “revolves an elephant which is a specially protected game animal under the Animal Welfare Act”.

She stressed that the legal dispute – which concerned the fate of rescued elephant Tswale – was in the public interest and insisted that she was not guilty of contempt of court.