Case Law[2025] ZASCA 13South Africa
Akani Retirement Fund Administrators (Pty) Limited and Others v Moropa and Others (1125/2022; 1129/2022) [2025] ZASCA 13 (21 February 2025)
Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
21 February 2025
Headnotes
Summary: Mootness – appeal having no practical effect – whether a discrete point of law arises – general principles restated.
Judgment
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## Akani Retirement Fund Administrators (Pty) Limited and Others v Moropa and Others (1125/2022; 1129/2022) [2025] ZASCA 13 (21 February 2025)
Akani Retirement Fund Administrators (Pty) Limited and Others v Moropa and Others (1125/2022; 1129/2022) [2025] ZASCA 13 (21 February 2025)
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sino date 21 February 2025
THE
SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
### JUDGMENT
JUDGMENT
Reportable
Case numbers: 1125/2022
and 1129/2022
In the matter between:
AKANI RETIREMENT FUND
ADMINISTRATORS
(PTY)
LIMITED
FIRST APPELLANT
CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES
NATIONAL
PROVIDENT
FUND
SECOND
APPELLANT
DANGAZELE,
BONGINHLANHLA
THIRD APPELLANT
SEMA,
REGINALD
FOURTH APPELLANT
SITHOLE,
AYANDA
FIFTH APPELLANT
MASHEGO,
LUCAS
SIXTH
APPELLANT
BALOYI,
JOHN
SEVENTH APPELLANT
MOTLAKENG,
POPPY
EIGHTH APPELLANT
MAKHABA, CASWELL
NINTH APPELLANT
TJIANE,
DAN
TENTH APPELLANT
DYONTA,
MONDE
ELEVENTH APPELLANT
NGONYAMA,
ZWELIHLE REGINALD
TWELFTH APPELLANT
ZUNGU,
BHEKI
THIRTEENTH APPELLANT
SIQITI,
TEMBA
FOURTEENTH APPELLANT
ARENDSE,
ALEXANDER
FIFTEENTH APPELLANT
PELO,
SINA
SIXTEENTH APPELLANT
TSHAMBU,
JOHN
SEVENTEENTH APPELLANT
OLIVIER,
LIZETTE
EIGHTEENTH APPELLANT
SHOLOKO,
SBONGILE
NINETEENTH APPELLANT
MATLOGA,
WILLIAM
TWENTIETH APPELLANT
SIBIYA,
GLORIA JOYFUL
TWENTY FIRST APPELLANT
JOHN,
SHANDRIKA
TWENTY SECOND APPELLANT
LOOTS,
ENRNOLENE
TWENTY THIRD APPELLANT
DE
VOS, LAURA
TWENTY FOURTH APPELLANT
NOLINGO,
BULELANI
TWENTY FIFTH APPELLANT
MAGAGULA,
ZANELE ESTHER
TWENTY SIXTH APPELLANT
DAVIDS,
FAIZ
TWENTY SEVENTH APPELLANT
and
MOROPA,
CHRIS LEGAKWA
FIRST
RESPONDENT
MAKAMOLE,
ESAU FRANS
SECOND
RESPONDENT
NKOSI,
SHALIMANE RICHARD
THIRD
RESPONDENT
SELEPE,
VUSI JOHANNES
FOURTH
RESPONDENT
RAMBAU,
MATHAPELO SHIRLEY
FIFTH
RESPONDENT
GAMEDE,
DINEO PRISCILLA
SIXTH
RESPONDENT
MAZWI,
SIKHWEBU CHRISTOPHER
SEVENTH
RESPONDENT
NKGAPELE,
JACK TEMA
EIGHTH
RESPONDENT
NBC
HOLDINGS (PTY) LIMITED
NINTH
RESPONDENT
NBC
FUND ADMINISTRATION SERVICES
(PTY)
LIMITED
TENTH
RESPONDENT
Neutral
citation:
Akani Retirement Fund
Administrators (Pty) Limited and Others v Moropa and Others
(1125/2022 and 1129/2022)
[2025] ZASCA
13
(21 February 2025).
Coram:
ZONDI DP, PONNAN and MAKGOKA JJA and BAARTMAN and
MASIPA AJJA
Heard:
5 September 2024
Delivered:
21 February 2025.
Summary:
Mootness – appeal having no
practical effect – whether a discrete point of law arises –
general principles restated.
ORDER
On
appeal from:
Gauteng Division of the
High Court, Johannesburg (
Adams J, Dippenaar J and Lenyai AJ,
sitting as court of appeal):
The appeal is dismissed
with costs in terms of s 16(2)(
a
)(i) of the
Superior Courts
Act 10 of 2013
.
JUDGMENT
Makgoka
JA (Zondi DP, Ponnan JA and Baartman and Masipa AJJA concurring):
[1]
At the hearing
of this matter on 5 September 2024, we made the following order:
‘
The
appeal is dismissed with costs in terms of
s 16(2)(
a
)(i)
of the
Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013
.’
We
undertook to furnish the reasons for the order in due course. These
are the reasons.
[2]
Section
16(2)(
a
)(i)
of the
Superior Courts Act
[1
]
provides
that:
‘
(i)
When at the hearing of an appeal the issues are of such a nature that
the decision sought will have no practical
effect or
result, the appeal may be dismissed on this ground alone.
(ii)
Save under exceptional circumstances, the question whether the
decision would have no practical effect or result is to be determined
without reference to any consideration of costs.’
[3]
The
second appellant, Chemical Industries National Provident Fund
(CINPF), is a pension fund registered under the provisions of
the
Pension Funds Act.
[2]
For
over thirty years, it
had
a suite of agreements (the agreements) with
the
ninth
respondent, NBC Holdings (Pty) Ltd) and the tenth respondent, NBC
Fund Administration Services (Pty) Ltd (collectively ‘NBC’).
In
terms of the agreements, NBC
provided
administration, consulting and actuarial services (administration
services) to
CINFP
.
On
21 and 22 November 2019, the board of trustees of CINPF (the board)
resolved to terminate the agreements with NBC. On 11 December
2019,
the board decided to appoint the first appellant, Akani Retirement
Fund Administrators (Pty) Ltd (Akani) and two other entities
[3]
in
the stead of NBC to provide the administration services.
[4]
The
first to eighth respondents (member respondents) are members of
CINPF.
They, together with NBC, were the applicants in the Gauteng Division
of the High Court, Johannesburg (the high court) in
which they
challenged CINPF’s decision referred to above. CINPF was cited
as the first respondent. The third to twenty-seventh
appellants,
cited as the second to twenty-sixth respondents,
were members of the
board of CINPF. Akani was cited as the twenty-seventh respondent.
[5]
The member
respondents and NBC sought relief in two parts. Part ‘A’
was an urgent interdict in which they sought to
prevent Akani from
taking over the administration services previously provided by NBC.
In Part ‘B’, the member respondents
and NBC sought to
review and set aside the appointment of Akani (the review
application). Part ‘A’ came before Vally
J, who on 12
March 2020, granted an interdict restraining CINPF and Akani from
implementing Akani’s appointment as the provider
of
administration services to CINPF.
[6]
T
he
review application also came before Vally J on
20
July 2020
.
The member respondents and NBC relied on two principal grounds.
First, that
CINPF’s
trustees had failed to consult with the member respondents and other
stakeholders regarding the termination of the
NBC agreements. Second,
that the decision to appoint Akani had been influenced by an improper
and corrupt relationship between
Akani and three of CINPF’s
trustees, namely:
Mr Dangazele,
then the Principal Officer; Mr Sema, then
the
Chairperson
of the board; and Mr Sithole, then deputy Chairperson of the board
(the impugned trustees).
The
member respondents and NBC also sought an order removing the impugned
trustees from the board
of
CINPF.
The impugned trustees
are cited as
the
third to fifth appellants in this Court. It is common cause that both
Messrs Dangazele and Sema have passed on, and Mr Sithole
has been
removed as a trustee.
[7]
It
was common cause that a week after Akani’s appointment, the
impugned trustees
had
received
payments from a company related to Akani, Neighbour Funeral Scheme
(NFS).
Mr Dangazele
received R40 000, while Messrs Sema and Sithole each received
R25 000.
The
member
respondents and NBC characterized these payments as bribes paid by
Akani to facilitate its appointment.
In
answer to those allegations, Akani and the impugned trustees
explained that the monies were paid in terms of their membership
of a
funeral scheme run by NFS. Each had apparently bought insurance
policies sold by NFS in terms of which they had taken life
cover in
respect of relatives. The insured relatives subsequently died and the
impugned trustees, respectively, became entitled
to payment of the
insurance proceeds.
[8]
In
its judgment delivered on 31 July 2020,
[4]
the
high court held that the decision to replace NBC with Akani and
others was one within the exclusive powers of the board, which
it was
entitled to exercise without consultation. As regards allegations of
corruption levelled against Akani, the high court noted
that the
allegations were also being investigated by
the
Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA), among others. The high
court reasoned that it would not be appropriate for it to
make
findings while the investigation before the FSCA was pending. It
accordingly dismissed the applications and the subsequent
applications for leave to appeal. This Court granted leave to the
member respondents and NBC to appeal to the Full Court of the
Gauteng
Local Division of the High Court, Johannesburg (the full court).
[9]
By the time
the full court heard the appeal on
21
February 2022,
two
events had occurred. First, Akani’s mandate with CINPF was
terminated on 10 August 2021, and on 1 November 2021, Momentum
Retirement Administrators (Momentum) was appointed in Akani’s
place. Second, Mr Dangazele had passed away.
CINPF
submitted that the removal of Akani and the appointment of Momentum
had rendered the appeal moot.
In
its judgment, the full court noted that
Mr Dangazele’s
death
rendered
any relief sought against him moot, and accordingly did not make any
order against him. With regard to the termination
of Akani’s
services and its replacement with Momentum, the full court dismissed
the mootness point on two bases: (a) the
point was not properly
before it because it was only raised in CINPF’s heads of
argument and not in an affidavit; (b) it
was in the interests of
justice to determine the appeal as the outcome could affect future
business relations between the parties.
[10]
The
full court accordingly entered into the merits of the appeal. It
found that
CINPF’s
decision
to
terminate its agreements with NBC and to appoint Akani, constituted a
reviewable administrative action
as
defined in s 1 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act
[5]
(PAJA).
It further found that the payments made to the impugned trustees
were
bribes paid by Akani to facilitate the removal of NBC and to replace
it with Akani. The decisions, so reasoned the full court,
stood to
be
set aside ‘on the grounds that they were underpinned by acts of
fraud and bribery.’
[6]
[11]
Consequently,
the full court
upheld
the appeal with costs. It set aside the order of the high court and
replaced it with one: (a) reviewing and setting aside:
(i) the
decision by
CINPF
and its board members to terminate the NBC agreements; and (ii) the
decision to appoint Akani and other entities as the administrators,
consultants and actuaries to CINPF; (b) ordering the removal of
Messrs Sithole and Sema as trustees of the CINPF; and (c) ordering
CINPF and Akani to pay the costs of the review application.
Akani
and CINPF appeal against the full court’s order, with the
special leave of this Court.
[7]
[12]
In their heads
of argument in this Court, counsel for CINPF mentioned in passing
that in the light of the termination of Akani’s
services and
the appointment of Momentum in its place, the review relief had
become moot before the full court, and that the full
court ought to
have dismissed the appeal on that basis. None of the other parties
addressed the issue of mootness in the heads
of argument.
[13]
On 29 July
2024, at the instance of the Court, the Registrar directed the
parties to file supplementary heads of argument on the
issue of
mootness in the light of the removal of Akani as the service provider
of administration services to CINPF, and its replacement
with
Momentum. All parties obliged.
[14]
The
principles and authorities on mootness and the court’s
discretion to hear appeals despite mootness, are settled, and are
conveniently collated in
Legal-Aid
South Africa v Magidiwana
.
[8]
Key among the principles is that
courts
ought not to decide issues of academic interest only. Accordingly,
where the outcome of an appeal would have no practical
effect, the
appeal would be dismissed on that basis alone. The other is that,
notwithstanding the mootness of the appeal as between
the parties to
the litigation,
t
he
court has a discretion to deal with the merits of an appeal. In this
regard reference was made
to
Qoboshiyane
v Avusa
(
Qoboshiyane
)
[9]
where the following was said
:
‘
The
court has a discretion in that regard and there are a number of cases
where, notwithstanding the mootness of the issue as between
the
parties to the litigation, it has dealt with the merits of an
appeal. With those cases must be contrasted a number where
the
court has refused to deal with the merits. The broad distinction
between the two classes is that in the former a discrete legal
issue
of public importance arose that would affect matters in the future
and on which the adjudication of this court was required,
whilst in
the latter no such issue arose.’
[10]
[15]
CINPF urged
this Court to set aside the order of the full court and reinstate the
order of the high court. Akani agreed with CINPF.
In addition, it
submitted that if this Court finds that the full court was correct in
deciding the merits of the appeal, it cannot
find that the appeal is
now moot before it because the same considerations for mootness
obtain ie the removal of Akani, the appointment
of Momentum, and the
death of Messrs
Dangazele
and Sema
.
[16]
Akani
also submitted that the full court made adverse findings against it,
in the course of which it committed various legal and
factual errors
in considering corruption allegations. According to Akani, this sets
an incorrect precedent regarding how such factual
disputes should be
resolved in motion proceedings. Akani submitted that its officers
against whom adverse findings were made, need
to clear their names,
and this remains a live issue. In this regard, Akani relied on
NBC
Holdings (Pty) Ltd v Akani Retirement Fund Administrators
(
NBC
v Akani
).
[11]
All
these, it was submitted, serve to indicate that the appeal was not
moot.
[17]
For their
part, the member respondents and NBC submitted that appeal was
neither moot in the full court nor before us, and that
the outcome of
this Court’s order would have a practical effect. It was
further submitted, that if this Court finds that
the appeal is moot,
the appeal nevertheless had to be determined in the interests of
justice. In support of their submission that
the appeal will have a
practical effect, the member respondents provided the following
reasons: (a) NBC’s notice of motion
sought the removal of
trustees; (b) the relief will inform any contractual dispute as to
whether NBC’s contract was lawfully
terminated; (c) the
decision of this Court will inform: (i) any future damages actions;
(ii) decision-making of other pension funds
across the country. As
regards the interests of justice considerations, they submitted that
the issues involved in the appeal are
of wider importance, concerning
the fiduciary duties of trustees overseeing pension fund interests.
[18]
The point of
departure for both Akani and CNIPF was that the appeal was indeed
moot before the full court. But because that court
had not dismissed
the appeal based on mootness, this Court should likewise enter into
the merits of the appeal. In my view, whether
the full court was
correct in dismissing the mootness point raised before it hardly
needs detain us. Given the further passage
of time, the factors and
considerations that were raised by Akani and CNIPF before the full
court, apply more so now.
[19]
As
mentioned, Akani submitted that if we find that the appeal was not
moot before the full court, and that the full court was correct
to
determine the merits of the appeal, we cannot in the same vein find
that the appeal is moot in this Court because the same considerations
apply. For this submission Akani placed heavy reliance on
NBC
v Akani
.
But, that is to misconstrue the position because reliance on other
cases is generally unhelpful as each case is decided on its
own facts
and in a particular context. Nevertheless,
the
facts in
NBC
v Akani
were
briefly as follows. After the interim interdict was granted on 12
March 2020,
NBC
publicised a notice in which it stated that the court had
‘
found
strong evidence of corruption in the matter at hand and that the
appointment of Akani was unlawful.’
[12]
In
response,
Akani
sought, and obtained, an urgent interdict, directing NBC, among other
things, to publish a correction. The high court subsequently
granted
leave to this Court. By the time the appeal reached this Court, the
review application had been decided by the high court,
which
made
no finding in favour of NBC that Akani’s conduct was corrupt.
This
triggered the mootness enquiry.
[20]
This
Court considered the following in that regard: (a) the effect of the
judgment remained that NBC’s statement was defamatory
of Akani
and that NBC had no defence to a claim based on defamation; (b) if
the judgment remained in place, it would possibly provide
a
foundation for a claim for damages and could, in any event, be used
in the market place to discredit NBC; and (c) that NBC was
entitled
to clear its name by having the judgment overturned; (d) certain
important issues in regard to the conduct of proceedings
based on
defamation required the attention of the court.
For these reasons, it
concluded
that
the appeal was not moot.
[21]
NBC v Akani
was essentially an
appeal against a finding by the high court that NBC had defamed
Akani. Upon such a finding, the high court had
ordered NBC to take
certain steps to correct the perception it had created. The order of
the high court to that effect had an on-going
practical effect.
It
is plain that there were live and controversial issues between the
parties which potentially could impact future relations between
them.
The appeal in this
Court was therefore deemed not to be moot.
None
of those considerations find application in the present appeal.
NBC
v Akani
is
clearly distinguishable from the present appeal.
[22]
It
is important to emphasise that an appeal does not lie against the
reasons for judgment but against the substantive order of the
lower
court.
[13]
Thus,
whether or not a court of appeal agrees with a lower court’s
reasoning would be of no consequence if the result would
remain the
same.
[14]
In
the present appeal, the removal of Akani as CNIPF’s
administrator and its replacement with Momentum, means that the
outcome
of the appeal will have no practical effect. In addition, two
of the impugned trustees have died. The third, Mr Sithole, has been
removed as a trustee.
[23]
The legal dispute has essentially
always been between Akani and NBC, ie the removal of the latter as
CINPF’s administrator
and its replacement with the former. Both
have been removed and that relationship, to the extent it concerns
CINPF, has come to
an end.
Neither
Akani nor NBC seeks to challenge Momentum’s appointment. Nor
for that matter was Momentum sought to be joined as a
party to the
proceedings after its appointment in Akani’s stead. Thus,
whatever may be said about the merits of the dispute
between Akani
and NBC, Momentum’s position as the new service provider to
CINPF would remain unaffected and unaltered. The
historical dispute
between Akani and NBC has simply been overtaken by Momentum’s
appointment and consequently the appeal
has become moot.
[24]
What remains
to be considered is whether, despite its mootness, the appeal should
nonetheless be heard in the exercise of our discretion.
As explained
in
Qoboshiyane
,
for a court to
exercise its discretion,
a
discrete legal issue of public importance that would affect matters
in the future and on which the adjudication of a court is
required,
should arise. Such an issue does not arise in this appeal. First, the
full court’s conclusion that Akani’s
appointment was
vitiated by fraud and bribery, was based purely on its factual
findings. Those findings were arrived at on the
strength of
allegations in the application papers before the court. Any future
contemplated litigation will undoubtedly have to
proceed to trial.
One can hardly imagine a trial court, that has had the benefit of
witnesses, who have testified and being subjected
to
cross-examination before it, considering itself bound by the
findings, such as there may be, of the full court. Moreover, it
can
hardly go unnoticed that whatever issues do arise in the envisaged
litigation, they have not been fully ventilated or finally
determined
by the full court.
[25]
T
he
only point of law decided by the full court was that the decision by
CINPF
to remove NBC and replace it with Akani, constituted an
administrative action reviewable under PAJA.
The
test applicable to whether powers and functions that are exercised
are public in nature, and therefore constitute administrative
action,
is a flexible one. Such cases
are
routinely decided on a case-by-case basis.
[15]
Viewed
in this light, the full court’s conclusion that the trustees’
decision to remove NBC as provider of administration
services to
CINPF amounted to the exercise of public power reviewable under PAJA,
does not amount to a ‘
discrete
legal issue of public importance’ envisaged in
Qoboshiyane.
[26]
It
is clear from the parties’ supplementary heads of argument that
some of the parties seek this Court’s judgment to
determine the
course of future litigation. For example, NBC seeks confirmation that
its removal as CINPF was lawfully terminated
as the decision of this
Court will ‘inform any future damages actions’. Equally,
Akani is concerned that the judgment
of the full court might be used
against it in future litigation. What the parties seek is this
Court’s opinion as to
possible future litigation prospects.
This we decline to provide. As pointed out in
Radio
Pretoria v Chairperson ICASA
,
[16]
courts
of appeal ‘do not give advice gratuitously. They decide real
disputes and do not speculate or theorise. . .’.
[17]
In
addition, the doctrine of ripeness stands in the way of considering
prospective litigation.
As
was put by the Constitutional Court in
Ferreira
v Levin
:
[18]
‘
[T]he
doctrine of ripeness serves the useful purpose of highlighting that
the business of a court is generally retrospective; it
deals with
situations or problems that have already ripened or crystallized, and
not with prospective or hypothetical ones.’
[19]
[27]
In all the
circumstances the appeal is moot in this Court. Its outcome will have
no practical result. There is no basis to exercise
this Court’s
discretion to hear it despite its mootness.
[28]
Before
concluding, it is necessary to say something about the full court’s
reasoning in dismissing the mootness point.
The
full court said the following:
‘
Finally,
I need to briefly deal with a ‘moot point’ raised, almost
in passing in his updated practice note by Mr Maleka
SC, who appeared
on behalf of the first to twenty sixth respondents with Ms Kekana. In
the practice note the Court’s attention
was directed to the
fact that Akani’s mandate with the CINPF was terminated on 1
November 2021 and Momentum has since been
appointed as the Fund
administrators. This means, so the submission went, that the order
sought against Akani would have no practical
effect or outcome and
that the appeal could conveniently be disposed of on this ground
alone, in terms of section 16(2)(
a
)(i)
of the
Superior Courts Act, 10 of 2013
.
Mr
Botha SC, who appeared for the appellant members together with Ms
Martin, contended that this issue is not properly before this
court
and for that reason alone, the point should be dismissed. I agree.
In
Capitec
Bank Holdings Ltd and Another v Coral Lagoon Investments 194 (Pty)
Ltd and Others
,
the court held that
the
issue of mootness stands or falls on the case made for it by the
litigant claiming mootness.
In casu, no such case in made out on behalf the respondents. For that
reason alone, the point of mootness should fail. . .’.
[20]
(Emphasis
added.)
[29]
Capitec
v Coral Lagoon
[21]
(
Capitec
)
concerned
a
complex commercial matter.
Relying
on a particular set of facts, the first respondent, Coral and the
second respondent, Ash Brook,
asserted
that the appeal to this Court was moot.
The
fourth respondent, Rorisang and the fifth respondent, Lemoshanang,
who had been given leave by the high court to intervene,
supported
the mootness point taken by Coral and Ash Brook.
After
a thorough analysis of the facts relied on by
Coral
and Ash Brook,
this
Court concluded that the appeal was not moot, and remarked:
‘
The
issue of mootness stands or falls on the case made for it by Coral
and Ash Brook
.
I have found that Coral and Ash Brook have failed to make out a case
for mootness. Accordingly, if the appeal remains live in
respect of
the principal litigants, there is no basis to rule that the appeal is
moot as against Rorisang and Lemoshanang as intervenors.’
[22]
(Emphasis
added.)
[30]
It is clear
that the full court misconceived the import of
Capitec
on this
issue
.
The point made there is that because the case for mootness was
asserted by
Coral
and Ash Brook, as the principal litigants, once it was found that the
appeal was not moot in relation to them, it could not
be moot in
relation to the intervening parties, Rorisang and Lemoshanang.
This
Court did not say that mootness should always be raised formally in
the affidavits, as the full court seemed to suggest. Indeed,
it may
not always be possible to raise the question on affidavit,
particularly where the issues raised for consideration have been
overtaken by subsequent events that either arise after the filing of,
or are not foreshadowed in, the earlier affidavits. There
can be no
absolute procedural bar (as the full court seemed to perceive) to
mootness
being raised for the first time in the heads of argument filed on
appeal. If anything, it has come, not infrequently to
be raised
mero
motu
by courts.
[31]
Here the facts
were undisputed. The fact of Akani’s removal and its
replacement with Momentum as CINPF’s provider of
administration
services, and the death of
Messrs Dangazele and Sema, are
common
cause. Insistence on affidavits, not only placed form above
substance, but also put the parties, the full court and in turn
this
Court to the unnecessary trouble and expense of having to consider
issues that on any reckoning are academic.
Therefore,
to the extent that the approach by the full court
may
in the future be considered by other courts to have some precedential
significance, this Court is enjoined to correct it.
[32]
It remains to
deal with the issue of costs. The appellants, Akani and CINPF, were
afforded an opportunity to reflect carefully on
the mootness issue
when it was raised by this Court. Both appellants elected to persist
with the appeal. It is a risk they assumed.
Now that the appeal has
been found to be moot in this Court, there is no reason why they
should not bear the costs. Those costs
should include the costs of
two counsel for the first to eighth respondents and for the ninth and
tenth respondents, respectively.
[33]
For all the
reasons set out in this judgment, we made the order referred to in
paragraph 1.
T MAKGOKA
JUDGE OF APPEAL
Appearances:
For
appellant (Akani):
Case
number:
1125/2022
AE
Franklin SC (with him JPV McNally SC and BL
Manentsa)
Instructed
by:
Webber
Wentzel Attorneys, Johannesburg
Symington
de Kock Inc., Bloemfontein
For
appellant (CINPF):
Case
number: 1129/2022
VI
Maleka SC (with him N Kekana)
Instructed
by:
TD
Mashele Attorneys Inc., Johannesburg
Phatshoane
Henny Attorneys, Bloemfontein
For
1
st
- 8
th
respondents:
AC
Botha SC (with him SJ Martin)
Instructed
by:
Knowles
Husain Lindsay Inc., Johannesburg
McIntyre
Van der Post Inc., Bloemfontein
For
9
th
and 10
th
respondents:
CE
Watt-Pringle SC (with him KS McLean)
Instructed
by:
Shepstone
and Wylie, Johannesburg
McIntyre
Van der Post Inc., Bloemfontein.
[1]
Superior
Courts Act 10 of 2013
.
[2]
Pension Funds Act 24 of 1956
.
[3]
Those entities are Novare Actuaries and Consultants (Pty) Ltd and
Moruba Consultants and Actuaries. These entities do not take
part in
this appeal.
[4]
The
judgment is reported as
Moropa
and Others v Chemical Industries National Provident Fund and Others
[2020]
4 All SA 197 (GJ); 2021 (1) SA 499 (GJ).
[5]
Promotion
of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000
.
[6]
Moropa
and Others v Chemical Industries National Provident Fund and Others
[2022] ZAGPJHC 420 (
Moropa
)
para 51.
[7]
Akani
and CINPF sought, and obtained, the special leave of this Court in
separate applications, hence two case numbers have been
allocated to
the appeals.
[8]
Legal-Aid
South Africa v Magidiwana and Others
[2014] ZASCA 141
;
2015 (2) SA 568
(SCA);
[2014] 4 All SA 570
(SCA).
Confirmed on appeal in
Legal
Aid South Africa v Magidiwana and Others
[2015] ZACC 28; 2015 (6) SA 494 (CC); 2015 (11) BCLR 1346 (CC).
[9]
Qoboshiyane
NO & Others v Avusa Publishing Eastern Cape (Pty) Ltd &
Others
[2012] ZASCA 166
;
2013
(3) SA 315
(SCA).
[10]
Ibid para 5.
[11]
NBC
Holdings (Pty) Ltd v Akani Retirement Fund Administrators
[2021] ZASCA 136; [2021] 4 All SA 652 (SCA).
[12]
Akani
Retirement Fund Administrators (Pty) Ltd v NBC Holdings (Pty) Ltd
and Another
[2020]
ZAGPJHC 174
para
10.
[13]
ABSA
Bank Ltd v Mkhize and Two Similar Cases
[2013] ZASCA 139
;
2014 (5) SA 16
(SCA) para 64.
[14]
Western
Johannesburg Rent Board v Ursula Mansions (Pty) Ltd
1948
(3) SA 853
(A) at 354.
[15]
See, for example,
Dawnlaan
Beleggings (Edms) Bpk v Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Others
1983
(3) SA 344
(W);
Johannesburg
Stock Exchange and Another v Witwatersrand Nigel Ltd and Another
1988
(3) SA
132 (A);
Calibre
Clinical Consultants and Another v National Bargaining Council for
the Road Freight Industry and Another
[2010] ZASCA 94
;
2010 (5) SA 457
(SCA);
Trustees
for the time being of the Legacy Body Corporate v Bae Estates and
Escapes (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2021]
ZASCA 157
;
[2022] 1 All SA 138
(SCA);
2022 (1) SA 424
(SCA).
[16]
Radio
Pretoria v Chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority
of South Africa and Another
[2004] ZASCA 69; [2004] 4 All SA 16 (SCA); 2005 (1) SA 47 (SCA).
[17]
Ibid para 41.
[18]
Ferreira
v Levin NO and Others; Vryenhoek and Others v Powell NO and Others
[1995] ZACC 13; 1996 (1) SA 984 (CC); 1996 (1) BCLR 1 (CC).
[19]
Ibid para 199.
[20]
Moropa
paras
85 – 87.
[21]
Capitec
Bank Holdings Limited and Another v Coral Lagoon Investments 194
(Pty) Ltd and Others
[2021] ZASCA 99; [2021] 3 All SA 647 (SCA); 2022 (1) SA 100 (SCA).
[22]
Ibid
para 21.
sino noindex
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