National Gupta associate is Jacob Zuma’s new lawyer Former Denel chairman Daniel Mantsha, a well-known Gupta associate, was implicated in a tranche of leaked e-mails in 2017 BL PREMIUM

Former Denel chairman Daniel Mantsha, who left the arms manufacturer in a huff shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa was elected president, has been appointed as Jacob Zuma’s new attorney. Zuma axed his long-time attorney Michael Hulley, who has represented him for more than a decade. Mantsha, a well-known Gupta associate, was implicated in a tranche of leaked e-mails in 2017, which showed how he had liaised with the controversial family when taking certain decisions at Denel. At one time, Mantsha was struck off the Northern Cape province’s roll of attorneys. He was reportedly accused of unprofessional conduct and misappropriation of funds. According to a judgment handed down in July 2007, Judge Brian Southwood found that Mantsha was not a “fit and proper person” to continue practising as an attorney and that the “public must be protected from him”. However, the Law Society of the Northern Province clarified that Mantsha was subsequently found to be fit and proper to practise as an attorney...