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# South Africa: North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria
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## Theu and Another v SB Guarantee Company (RF) Pty Limited and Another
[2023] ZAGPPHC 220; 87167/2019 (17 March 2023)
Theu and Another v SB Guarantee Company (RF) Pty Limited and Another
[2023] ZAGPPHC 220; 87167/2019 (17 March 2023)
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sino date 17 March 2023
SAFLII
Note:
Certain
personal/private details of parties or witnesses have been redacted
from this document in compliance with the law and
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Policy
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(GAUTENG
DIVISION, PRETORIA)
Case
Number: 87167/2019
(1)
REPORTABLE: NO
(2)
OF INTEREST TO OTHER JUDGES:
YES
DATE:
17 MARCH 2023
In
the matter between:
CHARLES
THEU FIRST
APPLICANT
(ID:
[....])
CONSOLATION
THEU SECOND
APPLICANT
(ID:
[....])
And
SB
GUARANTEE COMPANY (RF) PTY LIMITED
(REGISTRATION
NO: 2006/021576/07) FIRST
RESPONDENT
SHERIFF
CENTURION WEST SECOND
RESPONDENT
In
re:
CASE
NO: 7666/2021
SB
GUARANTEE COMPANY (RF) PTY LIMITED
(REGISTRATION
NO: 2006/021576/07) FIRST
RESPONDENT
And
CHARLES
THEU FIRST
APPLICANT
(ID:
[....])
CONSOLATION
THEU SECOND
APPLICANT
(ID:
[....])
JUDGMENT
KUBUSHI
J
Delivered:
This judgment was handed down electronically by circulation to the
parties’ legal representatives
by e-mail. The date and time for
hand-down is deemed to be 10h00 on 17 March 2023.
INTRODUCTION
[1]
This is an application for the rescission of a Summary Judgment
obtained by the First Respondent, the Standard
Bank of South Africa
Limited, against the First and the Second Applicants (“the
Applicants”).
[2]
The application was initially launched in two parts, namely Part A in
which the Applicants sought to set aside
the warrant of execution for
the attachment and sale of the Applicants’ immovable property,
and that it be stayed pending
the final determination of the relief
sought in Part B of the application. Part A of the application has
since been disposed of
by an undertaking made by the First Respondent
that the arrangement of a sale in execution of the immovable property
will not be
proceeded with, pending the finalisation of Part B of the
application. Part “B” relates to the rescission of the
Summary
Judgment, which is the application now before this Court.
[3]
The First Respondent's main action, in which the Summary Judgment was
granted, was launched in this Court
under case number 87167/2019 but
the current Rescission Application is launched under case number
7666/2021. The First Respondent
submits that this is an irregularity
as a rescission application is an interlocutory application to the
main case, and the case
number used should be the same as that of the
main case. The First Respondent seems not to be taking issue with
this alleged irregularity
as it had proceeded to argue the
application.
[4]
The application is opposed only by the First Respondent as the party
who was granted the Summary Judgment.
From the perusal of the
documents uploaded on Caselines, as well as, the First Respondent’s
Chronology Table, it seems that
the Applicants did not file the
Replying Affidavit and, as such, only the Founding Affidavit and the
First Respondent’s Answering
Affidavit serve before this Court.
RELIEF
SOUGHT
[5]
The relief sought by the Applicants in Part B of the application is
for an order, amongst others, in the following
terms:
5.1 Declaring
that the judgement was erroneously sought or erroneously granted and
should be set aside. Rule 42(1)(a)
and (b)
5.2 The First
Respondent did not comply with the notice requirements of section
29(1) and the relevant provisions of
section 130
of the
National
Credit Act 34 of 2005
.
5.3 The
non-compliance of the First Respondent with
Section 129(1)
Notice
requirements resulted in erroneous and ambiguous judgment by the
Court in terms of
Rule 42(1)(a)
and (b).
0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 150%">
5.4 Setting
aside the Writ and the default judgement.
[6]
In order to contextualise the issues in this application, the
synopsis to the factual background is set out
hereunder.
BACKGROUND
[7]
The First Respondent and the Applicants, concluded a written Home
Loan Agreement (“the Loan Agreement”).
The terms and
conditions of the Loan Agreement, as well as, the description of the
immovable property, as recorded in the First
Respondent's Particulars
of Claim are not disputed.
[8]
In terms of the Loan Agreement, the Applicants chose X51 Highveld 18
Lemonwood Street, Pretoria as their domicilium
address (notice
address) for service of legal notices in terms of the Loan Agreement.
The Applicants were obliged in terms of the
Loan Agreement to give
the First Respondent written notice of change of their notice
address.
[9]
As security for the Loan Agreement, the Applicants caused to be
registered a First Covering Continuing Mortgage
Bond over their
immovable property, in favour of the First Respondent. In the
Continuing Covering Mortgage Bond, the Applicants
chose 203 Claystone
Street Monavani Centurion, being the property forming the subject
matter in the application, as their domicilium
address.
[10]
In due course, the Applicants fell in breach of the terms and
conditions of the Loan Agreement in that they failed to
pay the
monthly instalments due in terms thereof, which breach is said to be
material. As at 31 October 2019, the monthly instalments
due, were in
arrears in the amount of R428 610.60 (Four Hundred and Twenty-Eight
Thousand Six Hundred and Ten Rand and Sixty Cents).
In effect the
Applicants were indebted to the First Respondent in the amount of R3
970,941.70 (Three Million Nine Hundred and Seventy
Thousand Nine
Hundred and Forty-One Rand and Seventy Cents).
[11]
The First Respondent caused a notice in terms of
Section 129(1)
(as
read with
Section 130)
of the
National Credit Act
("the
NCA”),
[1]
(“the
Section 129(1)
Notice”), to be sent to both domicilium
addresses set out in the Loan Agreement and the Continuing Covering
Mortgage Bond.
Notwithstanding the
Section 129(1)
Notice, the
Applicants failed to make payment of the arrear amount which had
become due and payable.
[12]
The First Respondent then instituted action against the Applicants,
the summons of which was served upon the Applicants
by way of
affixing at both aforementioned addresses. In due course, the
Applicants filed a Notice of Intention to Defend and served
their
Plea. This triggered the launch of the Application for Summary
Judgment by the First Respondent. The Applicants filed their
Answering Affidavit in opposition to the application for Summary
Judgment. Judgment was granted in favour of the First Respondent.
[13]
The Applicants are aggrieved by the Summary Judgment granted and have
approached this Court for relief.
THE
ISSUE
[14]
The crux of the application is whether in these circumstances the
judgment can properly and justifiably be rescinded
in terms of
Uniform
Rule 42(1)(a)
and (b).
LEGISLATIVE
FRAMEWORK
[15]
Although from the relief sought by the Applicants it appears that
their case is based on
Rule 42(1)(a)
and (b), in oral argument in
Court, only subrule 42(1)(a) became the subject of contention.
Therefore, for purposes of this judgment,
only subrule 42(1)(a) will
be referred to.
[16]
The salient provisions of Uniform
Rule 42(1)(a)
reads thus –
“
(1)
The court may, in addition to any other powers it may have, mero motu
or upon application of any party affected,
rescind or vary:
(a) an
order or judgment erroneously sought or erroneously granted in the
absence of any party affected thereby;
. . .”
[17]
There are two jurisdictional factors that must be established before
it can be said that
Rule 42(1)(a)
has been satisfied. Firstly, the
judgment must have been granted in default. Secondly, the judgment
must have been erroneously
sought or erroneously granted. The
requirement of default, that is, that the judgement was granted in
default, is not at issue
in this matter, as it is not seriously
disputed by the First Respondent. This judgment will, therefore, be
based on the second
requirement that the judgment is erroneously
sought or erroneously granted.
[18]
The question of what constitutes error for the purposes of
Rule
42(1)(a)
has been the subject matter of a number of decided cases. It
has been held that a judgment has been erroneously granted if there
existed at the time of its issue a fact of which the Court was
unaware, which would have precluded the granting of the judgment
and
which would have induced the Judge, if aware of it, not to grant the
judgment.
[2]
[19]
The Court in the reportable judgment in National Pride Trading 452
(Pty) Ltd v Media 24 Ltd
[3]
expressed itself as follows when dealing with the requirements of
Rule 42(1)(a):
“
It has often been
held that where the Rules prescribe a particular procedure, and that
procedure is not followed, then such procedural
error renders the
judgment sought and granted “erroneous” within the
meaning of
Rule 42(1)(a).
Effectively, what is being rescinded is the
procedure in terms of which the judgment was granted, and therefore,
by necessary implication;
also the judgment.”
[20]
And, in Lodhi 2 Properties Investments CC and Another v Bondev
Developments,
[4]
Streicher JA
remarked as follows:
“
Where notice of
proceedings to a party is required and judgment is granted against
such party in his absence without notice of the
proceedings having
been given to him such judgment is granted erroneously. That is so
not only if the absence of proper notice
appears from the record of
the proceedings as it exists when judgment is granted but also if,
contrary to what appears from such
record, proper notice of the
proceedings has in fact not been given. That would be the case if the
sheriff’s return of service
wrongly indicates that the relevant
document has been served as required by the Rules whereas there has
for some or other reason
not been service of the document. In such a
case, the party in whose favour the judgment is given is not entitled
to judgment because
of an error in the proceedings. If, in these
circumstances, judgment is granted in the absence of the party
concerned the judgment
is granted erroneously.”
[21]
On the basis of the aforesaid, it means that
Rule 42(1)(a)
is a
procedural step designed to correct an irregularity and to restore
the parties to the position they were in before the order
was
granted. The question that would then follow is whether there was any
procedural irregularity which would render the judgment
granted
defective.
ARGUMENT
[22]
The Applicants’ argument is that the judgment granted was
erroneously sought or granted in that:
[23]
Firstly, there was a procedural irregularity in that the First
Respondent obtained Summary Judgment against the Applicants
without
complying with the notice requirements of
section 129(1)
read with
section 130
of the NCA. It is argued that the provisions of
section
129(1)
of the NCA stipulates that before a credit provider (being the
First Respondent herein) can proceed with legal action, that is
before proceeding with the issuing of summons, against the consumer
(being the Applicants herein), the credit provider must first
draw
the attention of the consumer to the debt owed by serving the
consumer with a
Section 129(1)
Notice. The complaint is that the
Court granted Summary Judgment even though it was aware that the
First Respondent did not serve
the Applicants with a
Section 129(1)
Notice, in contravention of the requirements of
section 129(1)
of the
NCA.
[24]
In essence, the Applicants’ complaint in this regard is that
there was uncontested evidence on record before the
Court, which was
provided by the Post Office Controller to the effect that the
Section
129(1)
Notice from the First Respondent, that was meant to be sent to
the Applicants, was never delivered. It is argued that the said
evidence should have convinced the Court granting the Summary
Judgment that the First Respondent had not complied with the
requirements
of
section 129(1)
of the NCA and should not have, in the
first place, issued summons against the Applicants. Hence, the
Summary Judgment should not
have been granted, and has, therefore,
been erroneously granted.
[25]
The further argument is that the
Section 129(1)
Notice, that was,
apparently, served on another address as well, which is a different
address, not the address that is in the agreement,
should have been
regarded as irrelevant for purposes of the Summary Judgment
application. What should have been relevant, was that
the parties
agreed on an address and that is where the
Section 129(1)
Notice
should have been served, as is required in law, so the argument goes.
Therefore, the Court having relied on the delivery
of the
Section
129(1)
Notice to this address, erroneously granted the Summary
Judgment.
[26]
The Applicants’ counsel reinforced his argument by referring to
the judgments in Sebola & Another v Standard
Bank of South Africa
Limited & Another,
[5]
and
Kubyana v Standard Bank of South Africa.
[6]
[27]
Secondly, the Order granted in respect of the Summary Judgment in
question, was erroneously granted by the Registrar
instead of being
granted by a Judge (Court), in contravention of
section 130
of the
NCA, which clearly stipulates that matters regulated by the NCA must
be handled by the Court. This according to the Applicants’
counsel, renders the Summary Judgment a nullity.
[28]
In support of this submission, the Applicants’ counsel relied
on the judgments in Nomsa Nkata V Firstrand Bank
Limited,
[7]
,
Master of the High Court North Gauteng High Court Pretoria v Enver
Mohamed Motala,
[8]
and Theu
Consolation v First Rand Auto Receivables (FS) Limited.
[9]
[29]
The Applicants’ counsel submitted in oral argument in Court
that in order for the First Respondent to have been
granted the
Summary Judgment, it ought to have skipped over the two hurdles,
namely, compliance with
Rule 129(1)
read with
Rule 130
of the NCA,
which hurdles, according to the Applicants, the First Respondent
failed dismally to skip over.
DISCUSSION
[30]
The error or procedural irregularity the Applicants are contending
for is said to be in respect of the defective service
of the
Section
129
(1) Notice contemplated in
section 129
(1) of the NCA, and the
fact that the Order was issued by the Registrar of the Court in
contravention of
section 130
of the NCA. The two issues are dealt
with hereunder, starting first with the issue of the Applicants’
allegation that the
Order was issued by the Registrar, as it may be
dispositive of the matter.
Order
Sought to be Rescinded was Issued by the Registrar
[31]
In their papers, the Applicants premised their case on the allegation
that the judgment was granted by the Court,
[10]
but later on made the allegation that the judgment was granted by the
Registrar.
[11]
The two
allegations are contradictory in that it is not clear on what basis
is the order alleged to be erroneous.
[32]
In oral argument in Court, the Applicants’ counsel, in trying
to rectify the contradiction, abandoned the allegation
that the
judgment was granted by the Court and pursued the application on the
basis that the judgment was granted by the Registrar.
[33]
It is this Court’s view that the submission by the Applicants
that the Order sought to be rescinded was granted
by the Registrar,
is without merit.
[34]
In the first place, the Applicant approached this Court in terms of
Rule 42(1)(a)
, which as it has been said, requires that there should
have been an error which the Judge when granting judgment was not
aware
of. The Applicant contends, in their founding papers, such
error was occasioned in that
section 129(1)
of the NCA was not
complied with and that if the Judge granting the Summary Judgment,
was aware that there was non-compliance with
section 129(1)
of the
NCA, he would not have granted the order. With this allegation, the
Applicants specifically confirm that the judgment was
granted by the
Court and not by the Registrar. This admission has not been formally
withdrawn, and as such still remains relevant.
[35]
Secondly, the allegation that the Order was granted by the Registrar
is said without any facts substantiating the said
allegation. The
Applicants’ founding affidavit is devoid of any facts in
support of this allegation. The allegation was substantiated
by
evidence proffered by the Applicants’ counsel from the bar,
which is inadmissible for obvious reasons.
[36]
Lastly, this is a Summary Judgment that the Applicant allege was
granted by the Registrar. All Summary Judgment applications
in this
Division, are allocated to Judges for adjudication, irrespective of
whether they are about the NCA or not. The practice
is that all
Summary Judgments are placed on the roll in the Unopposed Motion
Court, and when opposed, they are normally heard at
the end of the
roll of the Judge hearing that matter.
[37]
It was brought to counsel’s attention that it is the practice
in this Division that a Judge hearing the matter,
particularly if it
is in the Unopposed Motion Court, like this Summary Judgment
application was, would grant the order and sign
or initial at the top
of the Draft Order which would be provided by one of the parties,
additionally, the Judge would then put
a marking like “X”
or “Y”, next to the initials or signature and sometimes a
date. The Draft Order so marked
will then be handed to the Judge’s
Clerk who will then take it to one of the Registrar’s for
signature at the bottom
of the page and date stamp it.
[38]
In response, counsel contended that he is aware of the practice
prevailing in this Court as far as Draft Orders are concerned.
He
referred to the Order itself, which was signed and initialled by the
Registrar and argued that the said markings of the Registrar
made the
Applicants believe or assume that the Order was granted by the
Registrar. Counsel submits that the Applicants could not
make out
that the marking, in the form of a signature, made at the top of the
Order next to an “X” marking and the
date, is that of
Raulinga J. and, as such, there was nothing that would have made the
Applicants to think that the Summary Judgment
was granted by Raulinga
J.
[39]
Counsel, further, argued that he is, also, aware of the practice that
sometimes Judges, when their roll is full, give
matters to their
Registrars to actually grant these orders. He submits that in the
instance of the Summary Judgment application
in this matter, Raulinga
J delegated this matter to his Registrar, who by signing the Draft
Order, granted the Order in contravention
of section 130 of the NCA.
He contends that the reasons for the Order (the judgment) that were
later provided by Raulinga J, was
an afterthought in trying to remedy
what has happened or to provide some form of relief to what has
already happened, which to
him was illegal.
[40]
Like as earlier indicated, these allegations by counsel argued from
the bar without any facts in support thereof, are
opportunistic. The
allegations are not contained in the founding affidavit in the
current application and/or the answering affidavit
in the Summary
Judgment application, and thus, remain allegations which are
unsubstantiated, and fall to be ignored by this Court.
The First
Respondent was not even given an opportunity to respond thereto.
[41]
As correctly argued by the First Respondent’s counsel, the
Draft Order which the Applicants’ counsel referred
to in his
argument, is clearly a Draft Order prepared by the First Respondent
and uploaded on Caselines together with the Summary
Judgment
application documents. It was printed and signed by the Judge and the
Registrar. At the top of the page of the Draft Order
there is an “X”
mark, a date and signature, which is obviously that of Raulinga J.
The Registrar has also signed the
last page of the Draft Order and
further initialled the pages. In addition, the Draft Order does not
have the same case number
as that of the present application, but, it
has the numbering or lettering of the Summary Judgment application
Caselines documents.
[42]
This Court, has as a result, to rule that this ground should fail.
Premature
Enforcement of the Credit Agreement
[43]
It is not in dispute that section 129(1)(b)12 of the NCA, provides
that if a consumer is in default under a credit agreement,
the credit
provider may not commence any legal proceedings to enforce that
credit agreement before first providing notice to the
consumer. It
is, also, not in dispute that a judgment or Order granted without
following that procedure has been erroneously sought
or erroneously
granted.
[44]
On this aspect, the argument by the Applicants is that the
enforcement of the agreement by the First Respondent was premature
giving the fact that the Applicant had not been served with the
Section 129(1) Notice. The submission is that before enforcing
the
credit agreement, the First Respondent should have, in terms of
section 129(1) of the NCA, first delivered the Section 129(1)
Notice
to the Applicant. The contention is not disputed.
[45]
However, the First Respondent submits, correctly so, that Raulinga J
in his judgment found no procedural irregularities.
The judgment, as
the First Respondent submits, clearly and unambiguously sets out the
reasons for the Order granted, and discusses
the defences raised by
the Applicants in their Opposing Affidavit resisting Summary
Judgment, in detail.
[46]
Besides, in his own words, the Applicants’ counsel argues that
once the onus shifts to the consumer, the consumer
must then show
that he did not receive the Section 129 Notice and the Court will
then establish the truth of her or his claim and
check if the credit
provider had complied in terms of the NCA. This is exactly what
happened in this instance. Based on the Applicants’
Answering
Affidavit that was before Raulinga J in the Summary Judgment
application, which informed the Judge that the Applicants
did not
receive the Section 129(1) Notice, the Judge set out to establish the
truth of the Applicants’ claim and found that
the Applicants
were not truthful. The truth according to Raulinga J, as is set out
in his judgment, is that the
[12]
Section 129(1) Notice was duly delivered to the Applicants at the
second domicilium address stated in the First Covering Continuing
Mortgage Bond. Whether Raulinga J in coming to such a decision was
right or wrong, is not for this Court to decide.
[13]
However, Raulinga J having made such a decision, it means that he was
aware of the fact, that is, that the Section 129(1) Notice,
had been
duly delivered to the Applicants. His judgment was, as a result, not
erroneously sought or granted. It is correct, as
suggested by the
First Respondent, Raulinga J having made such a decision, this Court
cannot reconsider it, as this will be tantamount
to litigating the
matter afresh.
[47]
This Court is, thus, satisfied that the Applicants, in this matter,
failed to establish one of the requirements of rule
42(1)(a), which
is that there should be a fact or error which the Judge was not aware
of at the time of granting the order sought
to be rescinded. The
First Respondent’s counsel referred to the judgment in Van der
Merwe v Bonareiro Park (Edms) Bpk,
[14]
with which this Court agrees, as support that if one of the
requirements of Rule 42(1)(a) cannot be satisfied, the Court has no
discretion to rescind the order. Therefore, the Applicants having
been unable to establish one of the Rule 42(1)(a) requirements,
this
Court has no discretion to rescind the order granted by Raulinga J,
and on this ruling alone the application for rescission,
ought to be
dismissed.
CONCLUSION
[48]
It is this Court’s view that the Applicants have failed to
establish that the Order or the Summary Judgment in
this matter was
granted by the Registrar. There are no facts before this Court to
prove that, except the evidence provided by their
counsel from the
bar. The contradictory evidence in their founding affidavit, does not
assist their situation. In most of their
oral argument, as well, the
indication has been that the Summary Judgment was granted by the
Court. The fact that they do admit
in their founding papers that the
Summary Judgment was granted even though the Court was made aware
that the Applicants were not
served with a Section 129(1) Notice,
puts this argument to rest.
[49]
The issues that the Applicants are arguing before this Court and all
the cases they have referred to in support of their
argument, as far
as their contention that they did not receive the Section 129(1)
Notice, would have been better argued before
the Court that granted
the Summary Judgment. In the application before this Court, and as
already stated earlier in the judgment,
the issue is whether there
existed a procedural error that that Court was not aware of at the
time of granting the Summary Judgment.
The Applicants, correctly
argue that they made the Court that heard the Summary Judgment
application, aware of the procedural irregularity.
Their counsel,
furthermore, in oral argument before this Court confirmed that that
Court had to find the truthfulness of their
allegation, which the
Court did, and found no procedural irregularity to exist. This is not
the same as where that Court would
have been informed that the
Section 129(1) Notice have been served, and without interrogating the
truthfulness thereof, granted
the Summary Judgment; and before this
Court it is revealed that in fact the notice was never served. Then,
in such an event, there
would be a procedural irregularity that
existed at the time the Order was granted, which is not the case in
this matter.
[15]
ALLEGATIONS
THAT RAULINGA J DELAGATED THE GRANTING OF THE ORDER TO HIS REGISTRAR
[50]
This Court opted to deal with the allegations made by the Applicants’
counsel that Raulinga J did not grant the
Summary Judgment
application, but delegated it to his Registrar who granted the Order,
because these allegations are viewed in
a very serious light.
[51]
These are baseless allegations that are not substantiated, at all.
They are, furthermore, not contained either in the
answering
affidavit in the Summary Judgment application or founding affidavit
in the current application, nor are they contained
in any of the
heads of argument filed in respect of the two applications. The
allegations are made from the bar by counsel without
any facts
supporting them.
[52]
The Applicants’ counsel sought to deny what he said or what he,
in fact, meant by these allegations, when he responded
to the issues
raised by the First Respondent’s counsel, and further imputed,
improperly so, on the First Respondent’s
counsel that she
wanted to tarnish his name and poison the Judge’s (this Court)
mind.
[53]
The about -turn he made when responding to the First Respondent’s
counsel, that the allegations were hypothetically
speaking, and that
he made an example and said that if he was a Judge and he has a
serious caseload he can sometimes offload matters,
which he cannot
deal with, to the Registrar, is not the truth of what he actually
said. Counsel informed this Court, in no uncertain
terms, and
repeatedly so, that Judge Raulinga did not make the Order and that he
delegated the matter to his Registrar. The Order
according to
counsel, was signed by JM Shongwe who was the Registrar to Raulinga
J, at the time because the Judge simply handed
over the matter to the
Registrar to make the Order.
[54]
Even though he said that the allegations were hypothetical, he in any
event ended, in conceding that this is basically
what has happened in
this case, that this matter was handed over to the Registrar to make
an order, so that the Judge can deal
with other issues.
[55]
This he said against the background of him having intimated that he
is aware of the practice that sometimes Judges when
their roll is
full, take matters and hand them over to their Registrars to actually
grant the orders. He emphatically stated that
such conduct by the
Judges is illegal, absolutely illegal, he said. He never said it was
unlawful as he stated when responding
to the First Respondent’s
counsel.
[56]
Even though in his argument he did not specifically use the phrase
“cover up” but the impression that is
left when he says
‘the Judge comes back with the written judgment as if now he
wants to remedy what has happened or to provide
some form of relief’,
is in this Court’s view same as saying the Judge was covering
up. The argument that Raulinga
J must have been overworked or
overloaded with work and then delegated the matter to his Registrar,
and later came back and wrote
the judgment to rectify the mistake
that he had done by delegating the matter to his Registrar, is
farfetched and pure speculation
at best.
[57]
It is this Court’s opinion that the allegations are, in
essence, scathing, disrespectful to the Judge and bring
him into
disrepute and should not be countenanced. Allegations that have no
basis, like these, which are so scathing and puts a
Judge’s
reputation into disrepute should never be uttered by a person of a
stature of counsel. They are made more serious
by the fact that they
were uttered in Court by an advocate, who is an officer of the Court.
[58]
In this Court’s view the allegations should be brought to the
attention of the Legal Practice Council.
COSTS
[59]
The First Respondent has requested for a costs order on attorney and
client scale in the event it is the successful party.
The view of the
Court is that a case has not been made out in these papers for costs
on attorney and client scale.
ORDER
[60]
Consequently, the following order is made:
1.
The application is dismissed with costs.
2.
The Registrar of this Division of the High Court is ordered to make
the Legal Practice Council aware
of this judgment.
E.M
KUBUSHI
JUDGE
OF THE HIGH COURT
GAUTENG
DIVISION, PRETORIA
APPEARANCES:
APPLICANTS’
COUNSEL:
ADV CN MOSALA
APPLICANTS’
ATTORNEYS:
MASAWI ATTORNEYS
FIRST
RESPONDENT’S COUNSEL:
ADV
K REDDY
RESPONDENTS’
ATTORNEYS:
VEZI & DE BEER INC
[1]
Act No. 34 of 2005.
[2]
Berea v De Wet NO
2017 (5) SA 346
(CC) at 366E – 367A.
[3]
Case No. 227/2010 (Eastern Cape High Court, Port Elizabeth) at
paragraph 27.
[4]
2007 (6) SA 87
(SCA) at 93H-94B (para 24).
[5]
2012
(5) SA 142 (CC).
[6]
2014
(3) SA 56 (CC).
[7]
2016 ZACC 12.
[8]
2011 ZASCA 238
Para 14.
[9]
Unreported judgment of the High Court Pretoria Case Number:
89371/19.
[10]
See paragraph 4.3 of the Founding Affidavit which states as follows:
"It
is mind boggling that the Court even after the applicants provided
proof from the Post Office indicating they never received
the sec
129 Notice in terms of the
National Credit Act, the
Court still
granted the Summary Judgement order against us." (own
emphasis).
[11]
See paragraph 4.5 of the Founding Affidavit which states that
"The
said application was erroneously granted and upon closer inspection
of the order, my attorneys realised that the order
was granted by
the Registrar and not by the Court as per the requirements of
Section 130
of the
National Credit Act.”
[12
]
129. (1) If the
consumer is in default under a credit agreement, the credit provider
–
(a)
. . .
(b)
subject to
section 130(2)
, may not commence any legal proceedings to
enforce the agreement before- (i) first providing notice to the
consumer, as contemplated
in paragraph (a), or in
section 86(10)
, as
the case may be; and (ii) meeting any further requirements set out
in
section 130.
[13]
See Seale v Van Rooyen; Provincal Government, North West Province v
Van Rooyen NO
2008 (4) SA 43
(SCA) at 52B where it was held that the
subrule does not cater for orders wrongly granted.
[14]
1998 (1) SA 697
(T) at 702H.
[15]
See Kgomo v Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
2016 (2) SA 184
(GP).
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