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Advocate Dali Mpofu uses bluster and ego to appeal to his television and Twitter audience, whom he hopes to convince of the merits of his cases. Because he almost never wins based on the law, writes Pieter du Toit.
Towards the end of the second day's arguments in the High Court matter between state advocate Billy Downer, News24 journalist Karyn Maughan and former president Jacob Zuma, advocate Dali Mpofu's tactics finally became obvious: run down the clock, and cry wolf.
He had been arguing his client's case for hours on end, without an obvious legal strategy, when advocate Geoff Budlender (for Downer) stood up in a sweltering Pietermaritzburg courtroom to remind the full bench that Mpofu had promised to conclude by 15:00 for Downer and Maughan's representatives to respond. This had been agreed upon by the parties before proceedings commenced in the morning.
