Court slams Komani’s ‘delaying tactic’

THE Grahamstown High Court has rejected an application to rescind a judgment requiring Enoch Mgijima municipality to pay a civil engineering company R21-million.

The judgment is largely academic as Enoch Mgijima’s fleet of vehicles and other assets were sold off 12 days ago to satisfy the outstanding debt to Milowo Trading.

The municipality, based in Komani, sought to have the judgement rescinded just days before the sale in execution was to take place. Judge Ndumiso Jaji was sharply critical of the municipality for its approach to the case which he described as dilatory and a delaying tactic. “The [municipality] has massive resources, could afford the best legal minds and if it wanted to defend the matter, at least it could have provided better defence,” he said as he rejected the municipality’s application and ordered it to pay the costs on a punitive scale to show the “displeasure of the court”.

Rubbish collection, essential maintenance and other services are now crippled without the 18 trucks, 14 bakkies, two TLBs, a roller, grader and 10 cars sold. According to court papers Milowo rendered services to the municipality over a protracted period including the building of a community hall in Sterkstroom. When the municipality failed to cough up it entered an agreement with Milowo to pay R7-million a month over three months. But it reneged in October, November and December. The municipality belatedly went to court to dispute both the debt owed and the judgment confirming the debt.