Johannesburg - The Mogale City Local Municipality is refusing to allow the legal owners of software – Quill Associates – access to its premises so that the company can remove its software.
This is in spite of two court orders that ruled against it following a dispute over ownership of the IT software.
The latest incident reportedly took place on October 17 – three days after the Supreme Court of Appeal
upheld a lower court’s ruling against the municipality.
Quill Associates managing director Danie van Heerden told The Star that he was accompanied on the day by his lawyer and a sheriff of the court in Krugersdorp to remove his system.
“The intention was for them to assist me to give execution to the judgments of the high court and the appeal court,” he said.
Van Heerden said municipal officials and the head of the legal section, Rethabiseng Mokebe, refused to accept the court orders.
He said his lawyers had subsequently approached Pretoria High Court Acting Judge LI Vorster to give his verdict in full.
Judge Vorster’s initial verdict was made on May 19, but on October 22, he delivered his order in full to make it possible for Van Heerden to remove his system.
In his order, Vorster ruled that “Mogale City Local Municipality, including but not limited to any of its employees, agents and/or any other person acting on the authority of Mogale, be and is hereby interdicted to remove the source codes, gain access to the BIQ computer program”.
Vorster further ordered the municipality to:
* Immediately, on granting of the order, allow Quill access to Mogale’s premises to remove the BIQ computer programs and system from Mogale’s computers and hardware including, but not limited to the server and/or personal computers and/or laptops of any employees and/or agent.
* Refrain from reinstalling any part of the BIQ computer programs and system or using any other computer server to access Mogale’s data through the BIQ system installed on that computer server.
* Retrieve all technical information and the source codes of the BIQ computer program in the possession of Comperio, Kennedy Chirombo and/or any other person and/or agent that Mogale allowed and/or knows of, and prevent Comperio and Chirombo from again accessing any of the aforesaid information in Mogale’s computer server.
Van Heerden said he went to the municipality after obtaining the judge’s order on October 22.
He explained that on their arrival, they experienced a security hassle before being allowed to see the relevant officials.
“In the boardroom of corporate services we met Mr Matseke from the legal firm (Matseke Attorneys) and the manager legal (Mokebe). The meeting was held without prejudice.
“After some discussions, Mr Matseke informed us that Mogale City has decided to take the matter to the Constitutional Court,” Van Heerden said.
He said his company had made several settlement offers, but the municipality had not shown any interest in resolving the matter, including paying for the penalties and legal fees directed to by the high court and the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The Star sent questions to the municipality on October 28. It responded 10 days later.
In his response, municipal spokesman Nkosana Zali said the municipality was considering the options available to it within the law.
He made no mention of the Constitutional Court approach.
Friday was the last day for the municipality to file in the Constitutional Court since the Supreme Court of Appeal’s verdict on October 14.
The municipality did not meet that deadline. It also filed its appeal papers in Bloemfontein late, but the court granted it condonation.
The Star