054508/2023 -awb 2 JUDGMENT
13-02-2025
affidavit as it ought to have been . Nor is the application
accompanied by a tender of the wasted costs for today, as in
the Court's view , it ought to have been.
The application for removal is made on the basis
that the notice of set down received by the Applicants stated
that the matter had been set down on the unopposed roll. It
is common cause that this was a typographical error on the
notice.
Counsel for the Applicant s submitted that but for
this error, the Applicants would have been ready to proceed 10
with the opposed application today. Th is submission is, in
the Court’s view, wholly unconvincing for the following
reasons:
1. The Applicant s have failed , without explanation , to
file their heads of arguments in this matter, which
heads of argument were due as far back as January
2024; and
2. The notice of set down was served on the Applicants
as far back as October 2024, albeit containing the
typographical error I have mentioned. This however 20
occurred in circumstances in which the only
application pending between the parties is this
opposed rescission application . In these
circumstances if the Applicants were not in fact alive
to the error, a simple enquiry would have revealed
054508/2023 -awb 3 JUDGMENT
13-02-2025
it.
The Applicants ought, in the Court's vie w, to have made this
simple and obvious enquiry particularly as dominus litis in
the matter.
Quite apart from the submissions made very
convincingly by counsel for the Respondent , Ms Carstens, a
perusal of the documents on CaseLines reveals that the
Applicants have , over an extended period of time, failed to
prosecute this matter with reasonable diligence.
Notwithstanding this, I am, in all the circumstances 10
prepared to give the Applicant s a final opportunity to file
heads of argument together with an application for
condonation. However, I intend to keep the Applicants on a
tight reign given their history of tardi ness in this litigation.
Furthermore, given the Applicants' failure to bring a
formal application for postponement or removal and their
failure to tender the wasted costs for today, I intend to make
a punitive cost order against them.
In the circumstances, I make the following order.
O R D E R 20
- - - - - - - - - - - -
1. The Applicants are directed to file their heads of
argument, together with an application for condonation
for the late filing thereof , within 5 (five) court days of
the date of this order.