Capacity: Attorney
First admitted: attorney (1998), conveyancer (1998), notary public (2001)
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Black
Date of Birth: October 1971
Qualifications: B Iuris, LLB (North West), LLM, Dip (Insolvency Practice) (UP), PG Dip (Labour Law) (UJ)
Key Judgements:
- Gold Reef City Mint (Pty) Limited v Bruni (A5030/2020) [2021] ZAGPJHC 33 (26 March 2021)
- Fairvest Property Holdings v Valdimax CC t/a Fish and Chips Co (A3019/2019) [2019] ZAGPJHC 435; 2020 (3) SA 202 (GJ) (1 November 2019)
- State v Hlatswayo (SS 046/18) [2022] ZAGPJHC 538 (29 July 2022)
- Meechan v Naude (A5003/2019) [2020] ZAGPJHC 272 (30 October 2020)
Candidate Biography:
Currently practising for his own account, Pretoria attorney Mr Mokate Noko prides himself as a conveyancer and property lawyer.
Noko’s legal career started in 1996 when he joined Rustenburg law firm Matlapeng Attorneys as a candidate attorney. In 1997 he ceded his articles of clerkship to Goodman and Jacobs Attorneys. Completing his articles in 1998.
In 1998 he joined prominent Pretoria law firm Seriti Mavundla Attorneys as a professional assistant (associate attorney), and stayed for a year, during which time he was admitted as a conveyancer.
In 1999, he took a leap of faith and started his own legal practice, Noko Ramaboya Attorneys Inc. He was admitted as a notary public in 2001.
Noko was the Pretoria branch treasurer for NADEL (the National Association of Democratic Lawyers) from 2020 until 2021, and later sat on the national executive of NADEL. Noko has also been a member of the Black Conveyancers Association since 2021.
Noko has served as an acting judge in the Gauteng High Court for at least 25 weeks between 2019 and 2022.
In that time, he has, on average, delivered all his written judgments within the 3-month period prescribed by the judicial norms and standards – a testament to his industry.
Also testament to his broad experience in both civil and criminal law, he has penned numerous judgments, in a variety of fields, including civil procedure, contract law, delictual claims, and criminal procedure.
In Lumka v Director of Public Prosecutions Gauteng, Noko wrote judgments for a full bench of 3 judges. In that case, Noko declined to order the stay of prosecution the appellant requested, as there was sufficient interest and evidence to prosecute him for the shooting and injuring of his ex-wife, and the killing of her protector. In that case, the appellant was charged with murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to murder among others, but there has been a 10-year delay in the National Prosecuting Authority instituting the prosecution.
In the reported judgment of Fairvest Property Holdings v Valdimax CC t/a Fish and Chips, a rental dispute between a fish and chip shop and its landlord, Noko had to decide whether the lower court was correct in upholding a special plea of lack of monetary jurisdiction, dismissing the landlord’s claim.
After carefully examining the provisions of the Magistrates Court Act on jurisdiction, the lease agreement between the parties, the pleadings by the parties, and several previous judgements, he confirmed the lower court’s ruling. In a key legal development, he ruled that the special plea of lack of monetary jurisdiction should be raised before litis contestation – before the close of pleadings – confirming a line of previous cases.
The General Council of the Bar in its review notes that Noko displayed his independent-mindedness by writing a dissenting judgment in Gold Reef City (Pty) Limited v Bruni David John, an appeal concerning the issue of summary judgment, where he sat with two senior judges.
Noko holds a string of qualifications: B. Juris and LLB law degrees from the North-West University, a Diploma in Insolvency Practice and LLM from the University of Pretoria, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Labour Law from the University of Johannesburg. He is currently enrolled for a post graduate diploma in tax law at Wits University.
April 2023 interview
Mr Mokate Victor Noko’s interview was successful. The JSC has recommended him for appointment to the Gauteng Division of the High Court