Controversial US attorney Ed Fagan has been dumped by his South African clients on the eve of a crucial ruling by a New York court on whether apartheid victims will be able to sue large companies, the claimants’ instructing attorney said Monday.
”There is no further involvement by Ed Fagan in the apartheid cases,” said John Ngcebetsha, the South African instructing attorney for the group.
”The mandate that he had has been withdrawn from him in the best interest of our clients,” said Ngcebetsha.
Fagan, who left South Africa late on Tuesday, will not appear before New York City District Judge John Sprizzo on behalf of apartheid victims, Ngcebetsha said.
The case to be heard on Thursday in New York is seen as crucial for four separate lawsuits launched against multinational banks and companies which allegedly supported the apartheid state during the 1980s in contravention of UN sanctions.
Fagan fired the first volley by bringing a class action suit on behalf of a set of victims in June last year, seeking billions of dollars in compensation. This was followed by three sets of similar litigation, which will be assessed by the district court.
Fagan, veteran of a successful class action suit against Swiss banks by Holocaust victims, was informed of the decision on Monday, the Johannesburg-based newspaper The Star reported.
”As far as I am concerned Fagan is out of the apartheid case,” it quoted Dumisa Ntsebeza, the lead advocate for the South Africans, as saying.
But Fagan said Wednesday that although he was aware of the move to get him off the cases, he was still the representative attorney in charge.
”I am going nowhere. I am continuing with the reparations and all other cases,” he told AFP via email.
The Star said ”it was understood that it (Fagan’s ousting) was preceded by months of deep unhappiness among the South African and US-based law firms involved.”
”Fagan’s flamboyant, larger-than-life persona has done much to publicise the lawsuits, but it was increasingly felt that his antics were not in the interest of victims,” the paper said.
”The other victim groups have actively distanced themselves from Fagan and his statements,” it added.
South African President Thabo Mbeki previously condemned the apartheid claims, arguing that many of the companies cited were now assisting in South Africa’s development, and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna asked the court in July to dismiss the suits.
Maduna asserted South Africa’s sovereign rights and said the government ”accepts that corporate South Africa is already making a meaningful contribution to the broad national goal of rehabilitating the lives of those affected by apartheid”. – Sapa-AFP