THE Port Elizabeth High Court has ordered city attorney Sizwe Maci to pay punitive costs after the Cape Law Society had to intervene last month to stop him practising without a valid fidelity fund certificate.

Reasons for the order were given last week by Judge John Smith. He had ordered in May that Maci be provisionally barred from practising as an attorney pending the re-issuing of his fidelity fund certificate.

At the time Maci had failed to file a prescribed audit report and said in papers before court that he was let down by his auditor.

He, in the meantime, complied with requirements set by the law society and resumed practising.

" It is indeed a serious matter for an attorney to practise for his own account, or in partnership without the prescribed certificate. The certificate provides ... security to clients that their attorneys' affairs are in order, and that they would be indemnified in the event of financial misconduct by their attorneys."

Smith added that even though he was not unsympathetic to the difficulties Maci might have experienced with his auditors, it still did not entitle him to practise without the prescribed certificate. "He should have known this. Moreover, the law society had addressed several letters to him wherein it drew his attention to the relevant statutory provisions, and demanded that he ceased to practise until such time as the certificate had been issued.

"He simply ignored these letters," Smith said, adding that this had compelled the law society to take action against Maci.