Gauteng - The Northern Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has found the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) in contempt of court after it illegally tried to get rid of a contractor from the OR Tambo International Airport in Joburg while a court interdict was in place to protect the black-owned entity against eviction.
Judge Hennie de Vos lambasted Acsa for ignoring an existing interdict which was issued by a different judge of the same court in March, warning that any further violation of the court interdict could land a nominee of the Acsa directors in prison.
The judge also had a swipe at Acsa’s legal counsel on Wednesday for coming to court unprepared and instead asking for another postponement of the case.
Tswelokgotso Trading Enterprise (TTE), an emerging black empowerment company that has been awarded several small to medium contracts by Acsa since 2010, approached the court after it was served with a notice to vacate its site on June 16 at the airport, where it is responsible for the maintenance and rehabilitation of runways and taxiways on the airside of the airport.
Additionally, the company has a contract for vegetation control and grass cutting. On Tuesday, Judge De Vos momentarily stood the case down for Acsa to consider some of the matters he raised regarding their application for a postponement, while he heard other applications. When the hearing resumed, the judge was informed that the mandate of Acsa’s counsel had been terminated and asked for a postponement so that the new legal team could prepare.
The judge was not impressed and requested that they file their documents overnight and set the matter for the following day.
“I am not here for the convenience of clients. The rules are the same for everybody,” he told the Acsa counsel.
The judge was livid on Wednesday when he was informed that Acsa had not complied with the court order to file the previous night. Acsa’s new counsel claimed they had sent documents to the wrong e-mail of TTE’s counsel and also conceded they did not comply with the order issued on Tuesday.
They then asked for another postponement to which the judge responded: “I gave you a chance yesterday and you did not file. We are sitting in an urgent court and I am not giving you another chance. I stepped out of my way to help you, and now it is the end of the road. The application for postponement is refused.”
A seemingly agitated judge told the Acsa counsel that they had undermined the administration of justice and the rule of law had been ignored.
Judge De Vos said Acsa’s contempt of court had a domino effect on TTE’s 39 employees and granted an order against Acsa.
He found Acsa in contempt of court but reserved the incarceration of any directors on condition that they rectify the situation.
Failure to do so, the applicant may approach the courts with amended papers to seek incarceration of Acsa directors.
Acsa was ordered to pay the costs of the application.
In March, TTE had to take Acsa to court for the second time in two months to prevent the airports company from closing down its operations at the OR Tambo Airport.
It was David taking on Goliath when TTE had to turn to the high court in Pretoria against Acsa after TTE felt aggrieved that the state-owned enterprise was bullying the company by unilaterally changing and cancelling the contracts.
The court ruled in TTE’s favour and ordered the company to continue with its work until the end of its contract last month. But in the meantime, TTE had obtained a court interdict preventing Acsa from terminating the contract until several conditions had been met.
The two sides have been at daggers drawn for months with no sign of improvement in relations after TTE’s state-of-the art gym and spa at the OR Tambo International Airport was unceremoniously closed by Acsa at the end of January.
The closure had threatened the livelihood of more than 40 employees of TTE.
Acsa said they had not paid the monthly amounts due for their lease but they said they had failed to meet their monthly obligations because Acsa had not paid more than R50 million due to TTE for work they had done as grass cutting, vegetation control and runway maintenance contractors. The matter regarding the closure of the gym will be heard in the high court later this month. In a previous response, Acsa said the allegations by TTE had been investigated and Acsa had found no substance or merit to TTE’s complaints.
Sunday Independent