Case Law[2022] ZAGPPHC 974South Africa
Janse van Rensburg and Others v WAD Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Others (29458/2022) [2022] ZAGPPHC 974 (5 December 2022)
High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria)
5 December 2022
Headnotes
Summary: urgent application - undue delay resulting in self-created urgency - first applicant embroiled in extensive litigation with a company to which he had sold shares in yet another company, WAD Holdings (Pty) Ltd (WAD) in 2017. WAD had distributed some of its own assets, notably shares in a listed company, Afrocentric Investment corporation Ltd, as dividends in specie to its current shareholders who now received an offer from Sanlam to purchase those share - the applicant sought to prevent that sale on an urgent basis - undue delay in launching the urgent application - no other compelling reason to indulge the self created urgency resulting from the undue delay- application struck off the roll - punitive costs awarded.
Judgment
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## Janse van Rensburg and Others v WAD Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Others (29458/2022) [2022] ZAGPPHC 974 (5 December 2022)
Janse van Rensburg and Others v WAD Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Others (29458/2022) [2022] ZAGPPHC 974 (5 December 2022)
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sino date 5 December 2022
HIGH
COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(GAUTENG
DIVISION, PRETORIA)
CASE
NO: 29458/2022
REPORTABLE:
NO.
OF
INTEREST TO OTHER JUDGES: YES
REVISED.
05
DECEMBER 2022
In
the matter between:
DANIEL
THEODORUS JANSE VAN RENSBURG First Applicant
AFRI
GOAL (PTY) LTD Second
Applicant
INEXMA
114 CC Third
Applicant
and
WAD
HOLDINGS (PTY) LTD First
Respondent
RQ
INVESTMENTS (PTY) LTD Second
Respondent
WHB
HOLDINGS (PTY) LTD Third
Respondent
XTR
INVESTMENTS
CAPITAL
(PTY)
LTD Fourth
Respondent
WILLEM
HERMANUS BRITZ Fifth
Respondent
ANTOINE
VORSTER
VAN
BUUREN Sixth
Respondent
AFROCENTRIC
INVESTMENT
CORPORATION
LTD Seven
Respondent
JOHANNESBURG
STOCK EXCHANGE LTD
Eighth
Respondent
ARC
HEALTH (PTY) LTD Ninth
Respondent
ROYAL
QUEENS HOLDINGS (PTY) LTD Tenth
Respondent
SANLAM
LIMITED Eleventh
Respondent
Summary:
urgent application -
undue delay resulting in self-created
urgency - first applicant embroiled in extensive litigation with a
company to which he had
sold shares in yet another company, WAD
Holdings (Pty) Ltd (WAD) in 2017. WAD had distributed some of its own
assets, notably shares
in a listed company, Afrocentric Investment
corporation Ltd, as dividends in specie to its current shareholders
who now received
an offer from Sanlam to purchase those share - the
applicant sought to prevent that sale on an urgent basis -
undue delay in launching the urgent
application -
no
other compelling reason to indulge the self created
urgency resulting from the undue delay-
application struck off the roll - punitive
costs
awarded.
ORDER
1.
The application is struck off the roll.
2.
The applicants
are ordered
to pay the costs of the opposing
respondents, on the
scale
as
between
attorney
and
client,
which
cost
shall
include
the
costs of two counsel, where employed.
JUDGMENT
DAVIS,
J
Introduction
[1]
This
is
the
judgment
in an application
whereby the applicants sought to have a
substantive sale and purchase of shares in a listed company stayed
pending the finalisation
of previously instituted pending litigation.
[2]
Despite the fact that references had
been made in extensive papers to the merits of the prior litigation
the point was taken that
any perceived
urgency in the intended sale bad been
self-created and that the applicants should therefore be non-suited
from proceeding on an
urgent basis.
Background
and nature of the urgent application
[3]
During
2015
WAD
Holdings
(Pty)
Ltd
(WAD)
sold
an
existing
healthcare related business to
Afrocentric Investment Corporation Ltd (Afrocentric), a company
listed on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange (JSE) and became a 16%
shareholder in Afrocentric (WAD's percentage shareholding in
Afrocentric has since then changed
from time to time).
[4]
According to the first applicant in the
current application (Van Rensburg) he sold his ½ shareholding
in WAD to ARC Health
Investments (Pty) Ltd (ARCID), now known as RQI
Investments (Pty) Ltd (RQI) in what he called a
"written
asset for share and subscription agreement".
According to Van Rensburg
"the
purchase price would be discharged
by ARCHIIRQI by issuing [to him]
JOO A-class ordinarily shares at
a price of
R
3 million per share in
ARCHI/RQI".
Van Rensburg would
then sell the A-class "consideration shares" to a company
in which he became the 100% shareholder,
Afrigoal (Pty) Ltd
(Afrigoal). This was
all
purportedly done
as
part of an
"internal
restructuring" as contemplated in section 42 of the Income Tax
Act 58 of 1962 (the ITA).
At
the time Van Rensburg's co-shareholders and co-directors in WAD,
Messrs Britz and Van Buuren, who feature as the fifth and sixth
respondents in the current urgent application, were unaware of this
sale and restructuring.
Part
of Van Rensburg's sale of shares was that a further R50 million be
paid to him or his nominee. There was also a possibility
of two
further tranches of payments.
[5]
After the above sale had been
implemented and after some changes in the shareholding of the holding
company of ARCHI/RQI, being
ARC Health (Pty) Ltd, which had been
succeeded by Royal Queen Holdings (RQH) in December 2018, Van
Rensburg in 2019 claimed that
suspensive conditions in his sale of
shares agreement with ARCHI/RQI had not been fulfilled.
[6]
Pursuant to this, Van Rensburg
instituted an action in this court in case no 79286/19, claiming a
re-transfer of his shares in WAD.
This
is referred to in the papers as "the first action".
[7]
The next year, on 10 June 2020, Van
Rensburg instituted a second action in case no 24783/20 for
rectification of the share register
in WAD, to reflect him again as ½
shareholder.
By
that time, Britz and Van Buuren have already some nine months
before sold
their shares in
WAD to
WHB
Holdings (Pty) Ltd (WHB) and XTR Investments Capital (Pty) Ltd (XTR),
respectively.
[8]
On 18 June 2020 substantive arbitration
proceedings were initiated by Van Rensburg against ARCHI/RQI and ARC,
seeking a declaratory
order that the sale of shares agreement between
Van Rensburg and ARCHI/RQI "never came into existence".
The return of Van Rensburg's erstwhile ½
shares in WAD was claimed or, as an alternative, payment of R300
million, being
the value assigned to the shares at the time of sale.
[9]
Within the time limit permitted by the
Rules of AFSA, under whose auspices the arbitration proceedings had
been launched, ARCHI/RQI
delivered an exception to Van Rensburg's
claim.
[10]
In the meantime, Van Rensburg withdrew the first action on 26 June
2020.
[11]
On 21 July 2020 ARC launched an
application
in
terms of
section 3(2)
of the
Arbitration
Act 42 of 1965 disputing Van Rensburg's
rights to claim a retransfer of the WAD shares.
Van Rensburg only delivered an answering
application thereto three months later on 5 October 2020.
A reply had been delivered on 26 October
2020 and ARC had delivered its heads of argument on 8 December 2020.
[12]
Yet a third action had been launched by
Van Rensburg in case no 33562/2020 wherein a retransfer of the shares
were also claimed.
Counsel
explained that his was "in case" Van Rensburg could not
succeed in his claims by way of arbitration.
This action was also met by an
exception.
[13]
Nothing was done to advance any of the
abovementioned litigation to finality until about April/May 2021
when.an attempt at consolidating
the 1itigation failed.
[14]
Thereafter, there was again a period of
inaction for another six months, which Van Rensburg blames on his
previous attorney, until
the appointment of his current attorney in
November 2021.
This
was followed, however, by another
spell of inaction.
[15]
In May 2022, finally some life was
breathed into the pending litigation. Van Rensburg delivered heads of
argument in the
section 3(2)
Arbitration Act application
on 17 May
2022, 17 months out of time.
[16]
On 25 May 2022 Afrocentric released an
announcement in terms of which it announced that WAD had implemented
a distribution of shares
to its shareholders, then being ARCHI/RQI,
WHB (the current third respondent) and XTR (the current fourth
respondent).
This
was described by Van Rensburg's counsel as "a bombshell".
This prompted Van Rensburg to launch an
urgent application, subsequently referred to as the main application.
[17]
In the main application, launched on 30
May 2022, Van Rensburg (and Afrigoal and a close corporation, Inexma
114 CC, as second and
third applicants) claimed, inter alia, that the
distribution
of
Afrocentric shares by WAD as in specie dividends to
ARCHI/RQI, WHB and XTR be reversed as
well as that the transfers of their shares in WAD by Messrs Britz and
Van Buuren to WHB and
XTR respectively
be set aside and also be reversed.
[18]
The basis for the above relief, as set
out in the founding affidavit by Van Rensburg is that, should WAD,
Britz and Van Buuren "
...
be
allowed to dissipate assets so as to avoid any possible liability
flowing from legal proceedings
...
there will be nothing left eventually
to satisfy any judgment that may be obtained against them [and] it
will also be become impossible
to obtain relief
in the form of transfer of those
shares I (Van Rensburg) am entitled to in WAD, if the shares in WAD
and also WAD's shares in Afrocentric
are being transferred to other
third parties
...".
[19]
After the delivery of "preliminary"
answering affidavits by RQI, WAD, XT
Britz, Van Buuren and ARC (the ninth
respondent), the main application came before Barn Jon
7 June 2022.
The matter was then referred to the
Deputy Judge President as it was envisaged that the papers would
exceed 500 pages.
The
answering affidavits were only "preliminary" at that stage
as Van Rensburg had only afforded the respondents 48 hours
to deliver
their affidavits.
[20]
In the meantime Van Rensburg, by way of
a filing notice dated 6 June 2022, delivered
a
document
entitled
"Applicant's
Actio
Pauliana".
It
is
a document more resembling heads of
argument (and it was in fact signed by Van Rensburg's counsel) than a
notice of motion.
In
it however, notice is given that action will be instituted against
Britz and Van Buuren based on fraudulent transfer of property
as
contemplated in the common law remedy of the
Acho
Pauliana.
[21]
On 8 June 2022 Afrocentric published a
further notice indicating a further transaction by WAD regarding its
assets.
[22]
On 21 June 2022 a meeting was held with
the Deputy Judge President.
At
this meeting, not only
was
the exchange
of
further
affidavits
agreed
on,
but the date of hearing of the main
application was fixed to be 14 November 2022. Pursuant hereto, the
aforementioned respondents
delivered their answering and
supplementary
affidavits
on the due date of 15 August 2022.
[23]
Van Rensburg's replying affidavit was
due on 30 August 2022.
He
did not meet this agreed deadline, but requested (and obtained) an
extension until 5 September 2022 from the opposing respondents.
[24]
On 6 September 2022, Van Rensburg's
attorney wrote a letter wherein the following was conveyed
to the opposing respondents:
"We
have considered our clients'
position after having read the answering affidavits by all the
parties in this matter and during the
course of drafting a replying
affidavit, we have advised our clients as set out below.
We accept for purposes hereof and
our clients explicitly rely on the correctness of the facts put
forward by the auditor of WAD
Holdings (Pty) Ltd, pertaining to the
financial position of WAD Holdings (Pty) ltd
....
ff
such information had been provided to ourselves and our clients
immediately when the urgent application was served, our clients
would
not have proceeded with the urgent application, nor with any
proceedings thereafter. Even though Mr Britz and Mr Van Buuren
have
not disclosed their financial position to the court, and have not
indicated their ability to satisfy any judgment that may
arise from
the pending legal proceedings, we have advised our clients that it is
not worth the costs to continue with the application
at this stage,
based on the facts before the court
...
without making any admissions of the
truth and correctness of any facts and evidence in the answering
affidavits
...
our
clients are willing to withdraw the application, should the parties
consent thereto and our clients are prepared tender the
costs thereof
on a party and party scale".
On the same day Van Rensburg
delivered a notice of his intention to withdraw the main application,
tendering the party and party
costs thereof.
In the aforementioned letter, the
respondents were warned that should they not consent to this
withdrawal, Van Rensburg will apply
to court on 14 November for
consent to effect the withdrawal.
[25]
The response from WAD was not
surprising.
It
was contained in a letter from its attorney dated 9 September 2022
which inter alia stated the following:
"The
offer as to costs is not acceptable.
The application was voluminous,
dealt with complex legal and commercial matters, referred to events
that transpired over a period
of almost 5 years and attempted to seek
severely prejudicial interdictory relief
against
our client
Our
client's
contention is that your clients
should
have
foreseen
that
the application
would
have
the result
that more
than one counsel would
be employed
by our client to oppose the
matter
and
even more so to comply with your client's unilateral self-imposed
short time frames in which our
client had to respond to the application
...".
The letter concluded with a demand
of
a
tender
to
pay
costs
on
the
scale
a
between
attorney
and
client,
including the
costs
of two counsel.
[26]
The response from WHB and XTR was even
more stringent.
In
a letter their attorneys stated:
"It
has been a tedious process to
arrive at a point where your client realized that the "urgent"
application
...
was
stillborn.
Your
client, throughout, maintained a hostile, aggressive and
confrontational attitude towards our clients...
Your client launched this
application on an urgent basis and should have realized that the
application had no merits when your client
received the
initial/preliminary opposing papers
...".
The letter also concluded that payment
costs on an attorney and client scale was justified.
[27]
Faced
with
the
demand
to
pay
costs
on
a
higher
scale,
Van
Rensburg, through his attorneys, did an
about-face and responded as follows on 12 September 2022:
"In
the light of your clients' refusal to accept our clients' withdrawal
and proposal towards costs in this matter our clients
have instructed
our offices to proceed as set out herein below: We confirm that we
will continue with the application that is still
set down for 14
November 2022 and as such we will file our clients' replying
affidavit by no later than Friday the 16
th
of
September 2022".
The
next day the Notice of Withdrawal of 6 September 2022 was "withdrawn"
by notice.
[28]
Rather than complying with the
self-imposed undertaking to deliver a replying affidavit by 16
September 2022, Van Rensburg did a
further about-face and delivered a
notice in terms of
Rules 35(12)
and (14) on 19 September 2022. In
this notice for the first time since the delivery of the answering
affidavits on 15 August 2022, Van
Rensburg alleged that documents referred to in the answering
affidavit, were
"necessary
...
for purposes of filing a full and
comprehensive"
replying
affidavit.
This
notice elicited
Rule 30(2)(6)
responses from the respondents.
[29]
On 11 October 2022 Sanlam and
Afrocentric announced that Sanlam has offered to
acquire no less than 36% of Afrocentric
shares at R6.00 per
share.
The offer is contained in an extensive
and intricate document with many conditions precedent, including
further assets for shares
transactions.
[30]
Ten days later, Van Rensburg launched an
interlocutory application, claiming a declarator confirming the
withdrawal of the withdrawal
of the main application, alternatively
its reinstatement, compliance with the notice in terms of
Rule 35(12)
and an interdict, preventing RQI, WHB and XTR from selling their
Afrocentric shares to Sanlam "or any other person or entity"
pending finalization of the main application.
[31]
Almost two weeks later, Van Rensburg
launched the urgent application which was the one serving before
court and which is the subject
of this judgment. In terms of the
Notice of Motion, yet again an interdict was sought prohibiting RQI,
WHB and XTR from selling
their Afrocentric shares to Sanlam "or
anyone else", this time pending the interlocutory application
and the main application
being "finalised".
As before, the respondents delivered
their answering affidavit within the truncated time period dictated
by Van Rensburg, while
the replying affidavit was, yet again,
delivered
late.
[32]
The Notice of Motion in this urgent
application
informed
the respondents that the matter will be heard "on a date to be
determined" by Khumalo J, who had been appointed
as case
management judge in the main application.
Khumalo J had however informed the
parties on 13 October 2022 at a case management meeting that she
would not be available from
30 October 2022 until the first term in
2023 as she would be on long leave.
The
trigger event on which Van Rensburg relied for purposes of the
present urgent application, was the posting or distribution of
a date
for the convening of a general meeting of Afrocentric shareholders by
no later than 8 December 2022, also referred to as
the distribution
of the "Sanlam offer circular".
This resulted in frantic arrangements
via the Acting Judge President for the hearing of this matter on 30
November 2022 and 1 December
2022, with further consequential
juggling of the hearing due to non availability of counsel.
[33]
A final procedural step by Van Rensburg,
save for the delivery of heads of argument, was the withdrawal of
prayer 5 of the interlocutory
application which, as indicated in para
30 above corresponds to the relief sought in the present urgent
application.
[34]
In total to date, three actions, a set
of arbitration proceedings, the
"Actio
Pauliana notice",
two urgent
applications and one interlocutory application have been launched or
instituted by Van Rensburg.
In
the only application not launched
by
him, the application
in
terms of
section 3(2)
of the
Arbitration
Act, he delivered
his
heads
of argument in May of this year, that is almost a year and a half out
of time.
Undue
delay and evaluation thereof
[35]
The
respondents contended that, had Van
Rensburg prosecuted any of the pending litigation
with any sense of diligence, there would
not have been any need for the present application and, insofar as
the date of 8 December
2022 represents a "cut-off' date, the
urgency
in
now
having
to
deal
with
the
issue of the purchase of
Afrocentric shares by Sanlam, is
self-created.
[36]
In
Juta
& Co Ltd v Legal and Financial Publishing Co (Pty)
Ltd
[1]
(Juta)
Van
Wyk
J stated the
following
in
regard
to
long delays in
litigation:
"If
one
bears in mind the long
delays
for which no
explanation
had been given, that as
far
back as December the applicant had numerous clear cases of copying in
its possession, according to the letter written by the
applicant, and
that up to now no action has been instituted,
it
seems
that
the
applicant
has
erred
in
selecting
this
method,
namely on application for an interdict pendent lite, but even if it
was the appropriate procedure at the time, the applicant
has, by
reason of the facts stated above, forfeited its rights to this
temporary relief,
had
it issued summons when the notice of motion proceedings were
instituted, the trial could already have taken place".
[2]
[37]
In the present matter, had the
respondent not delayed the hearing of the
Section 3(2)
Arbitration
Act matter
, that application could have been finalised and the
arbitration proceedings could have been concluded.
The rights, if any, to the retransfer of
the 1/3 of the shareholding in WAD could have been determined before
WAD even distributed
the Afrocentric shares to its shareholders as
dividends in specie, which has taken place as long ago as in May of
this year.
[38]
Van wky J continued as follows in
Juta:
"There is such a thing as the tyranny of litigation and a Court
of law should not allow a party to drag out proceedings
unduly.
In this case we are considering
an application for an interdict pendent lite which, from its very
nature, requires the maximum expedition
on the part of an applicant".
[39]
The
above principles were applied in
National
Council of the SPCA v Openshaw
[3]
where
a party's delay in instituting the
''principal
action to which its claimed interdictory relief was ancillary"
[4]
was
held against it.
The
court a quo had refused the interdictory relief and this refusal was
upheld on appeal.
[40]
It
has often
been
held that where urgency is self-created, it will be fatal to an
urgent application.
[5]
[41]
I am of the view that the purported
urgency, based on the distribution date of 8 December 2022 in respect
of the Sanlam offer to
purchase, has clearly been self-created.
WAD had as long ago as the date of the
institution of Van Rensburg's first action in 2019 in an attempt to
obtain a retransfer of
his shares, been free to either sell or
distribute the Afrocentric shares.
When
the shares were distributed as a declaration in specie some almost
three years later to WAD's shareholders, they became equally
free to
sell those shares. All that has happened in the meantime, is that an
identified purchaser has come along, offering to buy
the shares at a
price higher than they have ever traded for during this whole period.
Van Rensburg's delay, in all this time,
to prevent this foreseeable event, over the course of more than three
years' litigation
and numerous processes, cannot be labelled anything
else but an undue delay.
[42]
Van Rensburg's argument is as follows:
he is claiming (through various avenues of litigation), retransfer of
his shares in WAD and,
pending this, he is entitled to ensure that
the WAD shares do not diminish in value.
It is important to
bear in mind that the WAD shares and not
the Afrocentric shares are the
res
litigiosa
claimed by Van Rensburg.
[43]
I find that, having been the authors of
their own misfortune, such as it may be, Van Rensburg and the other
two ancillary applicants,
cannot now lay claim to procedures
in tenns of
Rule 6(12)
, providing for
urgent applications.
[44]
Are
there
other compelling reasons why Van Rensburg's seventh attempt at
approaching a court (or an arbitrator) should be indulged in
an
urgent court?
I
considered
whether
there might be interests of justice considerations which
would
justify indulging Van Rensburg's application, such as fraud or
collusion on the part of the respondents
which
might
"um·avel
all".
[6]
[45]
Our
courts have however set a high threshold before countenancing
allegations of fraud.
In
Schierhout
v Union Government
[7]
the
cowt
said:
"[B]aseless
charges of fraud are not encouraged by courts of law.
Involving
as they do the honour and liberty of the person changed, they are in
their nature of the greatest gravity and should not
be lightly made,
and when made, should not only be made expressly, but should be
formulated with a precision and fullness which
is demanded in a
criminal case.
In
the application now before the court, it is a matter of the utmost
difficulty to ascertain the exact charges of fraud
...".
[46]
In my view, the same applies to the
present case.
Van
Rensburg in his papers, and his counsel in argument in court, sought
to impute much improper conduct on the part of WAD, Britz,
Van
Buuren, WHB and XTR in either the distribution of the dividend or the
proposed sale to Sanlam, but, apart from bald and unsubstantiated
allegations, including those made in the
"Actio
Pauliana
notice", nothing but
mere speculation and alleged inferences have been placed before this
court.
No
provisions of any Act or regulation have been contravened, noadverse
consequence on WAD's solvency position could be demonstrated
and,
importantly, no collusion by any third party had been evinced.
[47]
At
the hearing of this matter the extent of the papers a exceeded the
500 pages envisaged when the main application served before
court and
extensive bundles of authority and heads of argument had been
produced.
Numerous
argwnents have been advanced therein by the opposing respondents,
particularly on
behalf
of WHB and XTR, as to why Van Rensburg never has a chance to succeed
with any of his actions or the main application but
in my view, to
make final pronouncements on matters which are still pending before
other courts, particularly
where
oral evidence might even be led, would be improper and might unduly
prejudice parties to that litigation.
It
has also been held that, even in urgent applications "...
the
attractiveness of finally disposing of the litigation, should not be
allowed to govern".
[8]
[48]
In
my view, the proper approach should be, similarly as in matters where
insufficient
urgency
has been established
to
justify a hearing in an urgent court, that this matter should
be
struck
off
this
court's
special
urgent
court
roll.
[9]
Costs
[49]
Ordinarily, when a party is
unsuccessful, the customary rule is that costs should
follow the event.
Generally
further, this entails a costs order on
the scale as between party and party.
These were also the costs and scale
tendered by Van Rensburg in the main application
before he and the other applicants
changed their minds about proceeding with that application.
[50]
Having come to the conclusion that the
urgency relied on by Van Rensburg had
been entirely self-created and that he
and the other applicants cannot therefore rely on
Sanlam's proposed
distribution
of
their
offer on
8
December
2022,
I
am of the view that this is a proper
case where the opposing respondents should not have to
be "out-of-pocket" for the
costs
beyond
that of a party and party scale. Van
Rensburg
and
the
other
applicants
have
been
litigating
literally
for
years
about the same subject-matter without any of the proceedings
initiated by them having been brought to finality.
[51]
ln addition, the list of procedural
dilatoriness on the part of Van Rensburg is lengthy.
In addition, the about-face regarding
the main application, when faced with paying additional costs for
proceedings which Van Rensburg
no longer wished to pursue, but then
ultimately did by way of yet another urgent application, merits
censure by this court.
This
type of conduct falls in the category of the
"tyranny of litigation"
referred to in paragraph 38 above.
[52]
I
find the following dictum in
Johannesburg
City Council v Television & Electrical Distribution (Pty) Ltd
[10]
both
instructive and applicable: "...
in
appropriate circumstances the conduct of a litigant may be adjudged
"vexatious
"
within
the extended meaning that has been placed on this term in a number of
decisions, that is, when such conduct has resulted
in "unnecessary
trouble and expense
which
the other side ought not to bear".
[11]
[53]
As a consequence, the applicants should
be liable for the costs of the opposing respondents, on a scale as
between attorney and
client, including the costs of two counsel,
where employed.
[54]
Order
1.
The application
is struck off the roll.
2.
The applicants are ordered to pay the
costs of the opposmg respondents on the scale as between attorney and
client, which costs
shall include the costs of two counsel, where
employed.
N
DAVIS
Judge
of the High Court
Gauteng
Division,
Pretoria
Date
of hearing: 30
November and 1 December 2022
Judgment
delivered: 05
December 2022
APPEARANCES:
For
the Applicants:
Adv
R Du Plessis SC
Attorney
for the Applicants:
JJ
Jacobs
Attorneys,
Pretoria
For
the 1
st
,
3
rd
, 4
th
,
5
th
, & 6
th
Adv
N G D Maritz SC
together
with
Adv
HP Wessels
Attorneys
for the 1
st
, 3
rd
, 4
th
, 5
th
& 6
th
Respondent: Van der Merwe &
Associates,
Pretoria
For
the 2
nd
Respondent: Adv
J Vorster together
with
Adv J A Booyse
Attorneys
for the 2
nd
Respondent: WWB
Botha Attorneys,
Pretoria
[1]
1969 (4) SSA 443 (C).
[2]
Ibid at para 16.
[3]
2008 (S) SA 339 (SCA).
[4]
Ibid at para 18.
[5]
Public Servants Association of SA v Minister of Home Affairs
(11673/16) (2016] SALCJHB 439 (22 November 2016) at para 17. Golding
v HC/ Managerial Services {Pty) Ltd
(2015) 1 BLLR 91
(LC) (27
October 2014) at para 24 and Lindeque and Others v Hirsch and
Others, In Re: Prepaid 24 {Pty) Ltd (2019/8846) (2019)
ZAGPJHC 122
(13 May 2019) para 10 to 19.
[6]
This principle was confirmed in Esorfranki Pipelines (Pty) Ltd v
Mopanl District Municipality (2014]
2 All SA 493
(SCA) at para 11
with reference to Lord Denning's dictum in Lazarus Estates v Beazley
(1956] 1 QB (CA) at 712 when he said: "No
court in this land
will allow a person to keep an advantage which he has obtained by
fraud ... fraud unravels everything".
[7]
1926 AD 94
, with reference also to Childerley Estate Stores v
Standard Bank of SA Ltd 1924 OPD 163.
[8]
Caledon Street Restaurants CC v D'Ariera
(1998) JOL 1832
[SE]
[9]
See Commissioner, SARS v Hawker Air Services (Pty) Ltd
[2006] ZASCA 51
;
2006 (4) SA
292
(SCA) at para 11.
[10]
1997 (1) SA 157
(A) at 177 C- F.
[11]
In re: Alluvial Creek Ltd
1929 CPC 532
at 535, Phase Electrical Co
Ltd v Zinman's Electrical Sales (Pty) Ltd
1973 (3) SA 914
(W) at
918H - 9198 and Hyperchemicals International {Pty) Ltd v Maybaker
Agrichem (Pty) Ltd
1992 (1) SA 89
(W) at 101G - 102D.
sino noindex
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