Legal fireworks ahead as old tensions resurface between lawyer Barnabas Xulu and Hermione Cronje

While facing his own Legal Practice Council disciplinary hearing into misconduct later this year, lawyer Barnabas Xulu this week launched an urgent application to interdict President Cyril Ramaphosa from appointing a new head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The papers were filed with the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on 29 December 2025. Xulu – known for his “death by affidavit” approach to law – had earlier penned a 99-page objection delivered to the advisory panel appointed by Ramaphosa to review and recommend candidates to fill the top job vacancy that will be left with Shamila Batohi’s imminent departure.

‘Biased’

The one-time founder of the Jacob Zuma Foundation accused the panel of being “biased in favour” of former Investigating Directorate head, advocate Hermione Cronje. He charged that she had not been “made to answer publicly”, as was the case with other candidates who were interviewed.

He also claimed this demonstrated that not all candidates had been treated equally and that the process had therefore been unfair and needed to be set aside.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has since confirmed that it intends to file a notice to oppose Xulu’s application. According to spokesperson Terrence Manase, the filing did not meet the requirements for urgency and was premature, in any case.

The president, Manase added, was still mulling over the report from the National Director of Public Prosecutions selection panel, which “considered all inputs received in respect of all candidates interviewed”.

Read more: The NPA is fixable, but only if we confront the crisis, says Hermione Cronje

Something fishy

Xulu and Cronje’s paths crossed publicly in 2022 during Parliament’s Section 194 Impeachment Inquiry into former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

That year, out of the blue, Xulu filed an application (which failed) in an attempt to force inquiry evidence leader, advocate Nazreen Bawa, to recuse herself from the proceedings.

He accused Bawa, who remains the lead prosecutor in Xulu’s ongoing legal battle with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, now known as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, of receiving “confidential information” from Cronje with regard to the “Lobster King” Arnold Bengis case.

Read more: Recusal requesters get legal mauling from Mkhwebane inquiry evidence leader

Bengis and his associates were convicted in the US for the large-scale, illegal harvesting and smuggling of West Coast lobster for more than 14 years. The US court ordered Bengis to pay substantial restitution, about $37-million (around R128-million at the time) to South Africa.

An amount of R128-million was held in a forfeiture fund in the US, which Xulu was tasked to recover. Xulu was illegally appointed by the previous minister, Senzeni Zokwana, to deal with the Bengis matter.

The lawyer had billed the state in US dollars but later found himself locked out of the loop when then department director-general Mike Mlengana terminated the services of his firm Barnabas Xulu Inc, with the exception of one case – the lobster trial in the US.

Read more: Barnabas Xulu resists state’s move on his house and Porsche to reclaim R20m

The Hlophe connection

It later also came to light during lengthy court proceedings that Xulu’s longtime client, John Hlophe, as Western Cape judge president, had issued the original order for Barnabas Xulu Inc to be appointed by the department as implementing agents in the Bengis matter “in chambers” or, in other words, behind closed doors.

In 2020, then minister of environment, forestry and fisheries, Barbara Creecy, in a notice of motion filed with the Western Cape Division of the High Court, set out an extraordinary series of events which essentially led to Zokwana appointing Xulu to represent the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Creecy sought to rescind the order issued by Hlophe.

The ghosts of lawfare past

In October 2020, Western Cape Division of the High Court Judge Owen Rogers ordered Barnabas Xulu Inc to repay about R20-million to the state, some of which had already been spent.

As a result of the Rogers ruling, Barnabas Xulu Inc was obliged to preserve about R3-million in a Forex FNB suspense account as well as about R95,000 transferred to Setlacorp (Pty) Ltd (owned by Xulu) between July and August 2019, not to be disbursed any further.

However, in March 2020, Barnabas Xulu Inc credited the money to a business account that was used “for various Barnabas Xulu Inc and personal expenses”, according to acting Western Cape Division of the High Court Judge Mas-udah Pangarker, who presided over another chapter in the saga.

Pangarker had found Xulu in contempt of court related to six civil orders and slapped a R30,000 fine on the lawyer, as well as instructing him to surrender his Porsche 911 Carrera and other assets. He was also sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment, suspended for three years.

These issues are included in the complaints about Xulu to the Legal Practice Council.

Rogers’ 2020 ruling is considered significant as it serves as a warning to ministers, departments and other officials who are partial to handing out work to legal friends and thus ignoring the State Liability Act.

Read more: Barnabas Xulu, Zuma/Hlophe lawyer, ordered to repay state R20-million in legal fees

Over time Barnabas Xulu Inc had ignored several legal orders to repay the money and had “disbursed the proceeds with an almost indecent haste”, according to Rogers.

The judge said it had “weighed” on him that Barnabas Xulu Inc “was very much the author of its own misfortune”, adding that “the greater part of the amount the firm would be obliged to refund – R17,657,098 – was money which Barnabas Xulu Inc parted with after it had been notified that the execution was non-compliant with the State Liability Act”.

Read more: Court upholds judgment that Barnabas Xulu’s firm was illegally appointed in fisheries saga

Facing the music

The Legal Practice Council has confirmed that Xulu will face a disciplinary hearing in 2026 after three complaints were lodged in 2020 and 2021. Barnabas Xulu Inc is registered in the Western Cape and also has offices in Gauteng.

A Legal Practice Council independent investigation committee had taken a “prima facie” view that Xulu “was guilty of misconduct and should be afforded an opportunity to provide reasons why he should not be charged accordingly”.

Earlier, a number of members of the initial disciplinary committee resigned for “personal reasons”, while others left “for appointment as judges”.

In March 2025, the Legal Practice Council appointed “a full panel, together with a practitioner who will serve as a pro forma prosecutor” for the hearing, which is scheduled “once an appropriate date has been identified in consultation with Mr Xulu’s legal team”.

Cronje helped establish the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit in 1998 and headed the Western Cape office until 2012. She headed the Investigating Directorate from 2019 to 2022 before returning to private practice to continue work as an international anti-corruption and asset recovery specialist.

In the meantime, should the advocate be appointed as the new National Director for Public Prosecutions, one could cautiously predict she and Xulu might soon cross paths again. DM