Judge Francis Legodi, president of Mpumalanga High Court, has ordered a state-employed lawyer to personally pay the costs associated with a case that was postponed due to late filings.

Other lawyers who miss court deadlines now face a similar fate.

In a damning judgment on Tuesday, after dealing with a number of postponements, Judge Legodi said: “Unfortunately, in the majority of these cases, it is the parties’ legal representatives who are at fault.”

He has also ordered lawyers to file affidavits explaining their failure to comply with pre-trial directives, South Africa’s The Times reports.