DA man must pay NGO’s legal costs
NORTHERN Cape DA councillor Shane Griqua has been ordered by the Northern Cape High Court to pay the legal costs of a non-governmental organisation, Right to Care (RTC).
This follows after RTC took out a court order against Griqua in an attempt to get him to produce bank statements and salary slips of employees of the Lesbian, Gay and Bixsexual Organisation (Legbo) of which he was the director.
RTC wants Legbo to account for the funds that it provided to them to run HIV prevention services in the Northern Cape.
Griqua was rapped over the knuckles during court proceedings on Friday, for what the court called “lax” behaviour by him in producing sufficient documents relating to the case.
Advocate AG van Tonder, who represented RTC, said there had been several communications by RTC with Griqua over a period of several months in an attempt to obtain the stated financial documentation.
Van Tonder said Griqua had not granted the matter the urgent attention it needed.
“In an affidavit, the respondent (Griqua) said he was unaware of the court order against him up until he was contacted by the sheriff of the court. He stated that he was under the impression that his attorney at the time, Chwaro Kgotlagomang, handled the matter. Griqua has a blatant disregard for the the truth and has provided no evidence to state any attempts from his side to get hold of the documents. He laid the blame totally on his attorney.
“He has blatant disregard for court proceedings and ignored various orders served to him.”
Van Tonder requested the court that Griqua be made to pay for RTC’s legal costs.
“The applicant (RTC) is a nonprofit organisation. There is no reason why the applicant should carry the legal costs. The applicant did not approach the court on measly reasons. The respondent should be found to be in contempt of court and an order should be made that he must fit the costs of the applicant or be imprisoned for 90 days.”
Griqua’s legal representative, Hannes Rust, said that although the documents were not sufficient, Griqua did obtain some of them.
“Although there are no salary slips, the respondent did include statements from people to state they got a salary from the respondent. The fact that he did disclose this information, although it was not everything, is a sign of attempt from his side. The respondent has to a certain extent complied with the court order,” Rust argued.
He added that imprisonment would be a harsh sentence.
“Imprisonment would be a harsh punishment. The respondent should be punished for not complying to the order but a fine would be a much more appropriate punishment. A fine of R10 000 will be an appropriate fine as there is no clear indication on the employment status of the respondent currently. We are aware that the respondent and the applicant have parted ways.”
Judge Bulelwa Pakati was evidently not pleased with Griqua’s non-compliance.
“The respondent had many opportunities to attend to the matter but he did nothing. He said he handed all documents over and puts the blame on his attorney at the time, yet he (Griqua) is the one who has a case,” said Pakati.
“The documents are not complete. The salary slips of people mentioned are not included and the bank statements do not start on the dates stated. This gives an indication that there is something to hide as the respondent was selective in which bank statements he included.”
Pakati said that there was no indication that Griqua would get his house in order if the court order was suspended.
“If the order is suspended again, nothing is going to change. He has not complied with the current order. He did attempt in his own way but that was not sufficient,” she said.
Pakati ordered that Griqua pay the attorney and client costs of RTC.