Judge puts 13-year case out of misery
A “SHAMBOLIC” court case that has lasted 13 years finally came to an end this month.
It involved 597 actions and 41 interim applications over that time, more than 70 volumes of transcripts, parties dying, a lawyer whose actions smacked of unprofessionalism and an attorney’s office that mysteriously burnt down.
“Over a period of some 13 years an extraordinary amount of time, money and effort has been spent in resisting claims which were repeatedly and resoundingly found to be entirely without merit,” Judge Rob Griffiths said as he ordered a permanent stay of the case.
He said continuing with the “shambolic proceedings” in the High Court in Mthatha would cost taxpayers “a substantial” amount of money and would be an “abuse” of court.
The case began in 1999 after the Eastern Cape premier dissolved agricultural parastatals and their associated irrigation schemes, including the Transkei Agricultural Corporation (Tracor).
Hundreds of former Tracor employees took the premier and members of the executive council for rural development and agrarian reform to court, asking it to declare the closure “unconstitutional and invalid” and for damages for loss of income. All the actions were defended.
The order to stay the case refers to “a litany of disastrous attempts” to rectify the former employees’ founding papers and how, despite having claims dismissed and losing several interim applications, they persisted in a meritless case. Not even the “multiplicity of costs orders” against them deterred the former employees.
The government has raised
Claims were resoundingly found to be without merit
concerns about who will ultimately pay the mounting legal costs, saying: “The [former employees] will almost certainly not be able to pay in view of their continued protestations of impoverishment.”
Then there was the mystery fire, which on July 8 2008 destroyed the offices of the applicants’ attorneys.
“During the course of this inferno the entire contents of all the files in these actions were destroyed,” the judge lamented.
Griffiths was far from im- pressed with the conduct of the employees’ attorney, Mpeleki Tshiki, and ordered that a copy of his judgment be delivered to the Law Society to investigate behaviour by the attorney that “smacks of unprofessional conduct”.
This included Tshiki abruptly leaving court while in session — responding to the judge’s protests by telling him he was “rushing for the flight to East London”.
The judge raised doubt about whether Tshiki had the authority to persist in the case and questioned the fact that he, despite being their lawyer, also took the stand as a witness in the matter. In an unusual move, Tshiki was hit with a costs order during the case; it remained unpaid at the time of the judgment.
This week, Cape Law Society director Rampela Mokoena said it had not received any complaints about Tshiki. The society confirmed that he was still registered to practise.
The Sunday Times was unable to trace Tshiki. Of the four numbers listed for his firm, three do not exist and a fourth rang without answer.