Johannesburg - Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane has admitted that her office was faced with lawsuits of more than R58 million against her.
This was contained in Mokonyane’s written reply to questions from the DA’s Jack Bloom. He had wanted Mokonyane to give detailed account of her guards’ decision to prevent the sheriff of the court entering her official residence in Bryanston and to attach movable property in accordance with court rulings.
According to Bloom, the sheriff had, since June last year, visited Mokonyane’s office and official residence at least 40 times, without any success.
Mokonyane vehemently denied that her guards prevented the sheriff from doing his work on March 13 this year, saying: “Security did not unlawfully prevent the sheriff entry to the official residence of the premier.
“In accordance with VIP and security standards of the SAPS, unless prior appointment is made, no one will be allowed onto the premises. The sheriff is aware of this arrangement. This visit was unannounced,” Mokonyane said.
The premier also gave the DA details of the lawsuits against her as well as several of her executive council members, who are being sued for their respective departments’ alleged failure to deliver proper medical services to patients in public hospitals.
Other cases include government departments failing to honour contracts and paying service providers on time.
In her reply, Mokonyane promised to reverse the late payments and honour contracts where necessary to avoid being served with papers by the sheriff.
“The sheriff is not unlawfully obstructed. To ensure that court orders are paid on time, the departments have been informed to follow cases until judgment is granted.
“The litigation management approach places an emphasis on prioritising court orders for payment. It is anticipated that the latter two interventions will assist the timeous payment of court orders and also avoid the sheriff from having to intervene further,” Mokonyane promised.
According to her written reply, the largest amount for the claims was the medical negligence court orders, including a R20m summons from last August by Mthendona Fellowmen against her and the Department of Health. The case is still pending.
In October last year, Mbokoda Construction and nine others served court papers for breach of contract against the Department of Roads and Transport, claiming R7.5 million.
Some of the other medical negligence cases listed include:
* Sara Kedienetse Feni served a summons for a R15m medical negligence case on February 18. The case is still pending.
* Karen Keating claimed R1.121m on February 25 for medical negligence in terms of a court judgment handed down on December 18, 2009.
* A R5.363m payment was made to Nicolaas van Niekerk for brain damage suffered at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital on March 20 after the sheriff filed a writ of execution.
Six of the claims in the reply had no monetary value, while paid claims ranged from R7 000 to R20m. Out of the 40 court orders, 22 were pending cases.
The court order claims include property ownership and rentals, damages from vehicle accidents, unlawful arrest, breach of contract and medical negligence.
Bloom said the premier had a shameful record of ignoring court orders until a sheriff arrived to attach the furniture.
The Star