Case No 110/2008 In the matter between
REFLECT-ALL 1025 CC First Applicant SIXBAR TRADING 667 (PTY) LTD Second Applicant BICCARD REALTY CC Third Applicant ROY MOUNTJOY Fourth Applicant PATRICIA ROSAMUND NAOUMOFF Fifth Applicant
TOWNSHIP REALTORS (SA) (PTY) LTD Sixth Applicant STELLA VERNA WORSLEY Seventh Applicant MNANDI PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT (PTY) LTD Eighth Applicant
and
THE MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT, ROADS AND WORKS,
GAUTENG PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT First Respondent THE PREMIER OF THE PROVINCE OF GAUTENG Second Respondent
FOUNDING AFFIDAVIT
I, the undersigned,
PETER BASIL MURRAY, state under oath that :
1 I am an adult male attorney of Coetsee Van Rensburg Attorneys, Ground Floor, Aberdeen House, Peter Place Park, 54 Peter Place, Lyme Park, Johannesburg.
2 The facts stated herein are, to the best of my knowledge, true and correct and are, save where otherwise indicated, within my own personal knowledge.
3 I am the attorney of record of the applicants and am duly authorised by the applicants to depose to this affidavit in support of their application for confirmation and for leave to appeal.
4 This is an application for condonation, in accordance with the provisions of, inter alia, Rule 32(2) of the Rules of this Honourable Court.
5 Condonation is sought herein for the late filing of the record as follows:
5.1 In terms of the Directions of this Honourable Court dated 19 January 2009 (a copy of which is annexed hereto marked Annexure “PBM1”) the record of the High Court was required to be lodged with the Registrar of this Honourable Court on or before Friday 20 February 2009 in terms of paragraph 3 of the attached Directions.
5.2 Under the circumstances which will be outlined hereunder, the record was only lodged with the Registrar of this Honourable Court on the next working day after 20 February 2009, namely Monday 23 February 2009.
5.3 Accordingly, condonation is sought for the late filing of the record by one day.
6 The circumstances under which and the reasons for which the record was filed late were the following:
6.1 In my capacity as the attorney for the applicants in the condonation application, I very soon after receipt of the aforesaid directions on or soon after 19 January 2009 commenced discussions with the senior and junior counsel who have been briefed by the applicants, and the State Attorney, who represents the respondents, concerning the content of the record so as to procure agreement between all parties as to the content of the record.
6.2 I mention that this is the first occasion on which I have conducted any proceedings in this Honourable Court and I was for this reason unsure as to the content of the record.
6.3 Once agreement had been reached as to the content of the record, I personally attended at the offices of the Registrar of this Honourable Court so as to obtain guidance as to the precise manner in which the record should be indexed, paginated, bound, and generally presented.
6.4 Having obtained such guidance, the index was prepared and I timeously sent the record to our local printers in order to prepare the requisite 25 copies of the record bound as required. I warned the
printers that we required the complete set of documents by no later than Thursday 19 February 2009 for purposes of timeous filing.
6.5 On Thursday 19 February 2009 the printers informed me that they could not bind the record as required and that they had been compelled to send the record to an alternative printing company for binding purposes.
They assured me however that I would have the complete record back early on Friday morning 20 February 2009.
6.6 I was in constant telephonic contact with the printers during the course of the Friday morning and ultimately we were only able to collect the record, copied and bound, at 14h15.
6.7 I immediately gave the record to our messenger, Philemon Sikhosana, together with the filing sheet, and I instructed him to serve the record on the State Attorney and to urgently lodge the record with the Registrar of this Honourable Court before 15h30, being the closing time of the Registrar’s office as referred to in Rule 3(1) of the Rules of this Honourable Court.
6.8 Our messenger immediately served the record on the State Attorney.
The date stamp on the filing sheet will indicate that the record was indeed served on the State Attorney on Friday 20 February 2009.
Thereafter, he made his way to the seat of this Honourable Court. Due to the fact that he was delayed by traffic congestion (which he
constantly communicated to me telephonically, and which I constantly communicated to Delano of the Registrar’s office telephonically, thus making the Registrar fully aware that my messenger was on his way), Philemon Sikhosana only arrived at the Registrar’s office at 15h55. By this time, the Registrar’s office was closed and he could not find anyone to assist him by accepting the record.
6.9 Under the circumstances, I had no option but to direct my messenger to return to our offices with the complete record.
7 A confirmatory affidavit deposed to by Philemon Sikhosana is annexed hereto marked Annexure “PBM2”.
8 For the reasons as aforesaid, I humbly submit that good cause has been shown for condoning the late filing of the record, and I apologise for any inconvenience which this might have caused.
_________________________
DEPONENT
I hereby certify that the deponent declares that he knows and understands the contents of this affidavit and that it is to the best of his knowledge both true and correct. This affidavit was signed and sworn to before me at
___________________ on this ______ day of FEBRUARY 2009 and that the Regulations contained in Government Notice R1258 of 21 July 1972, as amended, have been complied with.
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COMMISSIONER OF OATHS
