CAPE TOWN - Tardiness and delays in court proceedings at the Western Cape High Court were recently highlighted in a high court judgment in which the provincial government has been interdicted from terminating security services at a Cape Winelands hospital.
The application for an interim interdict pending the delivery of a judgment in a review application for DC Security to continue rendering the services of about 48 security officers, was granted by Judge Derek Wille last week.
Judgment in the main review application has been outstanding for at least 19 months, in comparison to the three months delay limit set out by judges standards, and there is no clear indication as to when this judgment would be handed down.
This comes after Judge President John Hlophe notified all judges and acting judges to wrap up overdue judgments, in accordance with judges norms and standards, to deliver judgments within three months of it being reserved.
According to court documents, one of the core issues to be determined in the main application of DC Security relates to a decision to exclude the security company from the award of any ‘security services’ contracts within a certain geographical area. DC Security received a notification from the Western Cape Provincial Government (WCG) advising it that the provincial health department was concluding a process to appoint a new security service provider at the hospital. The security company was advised that its short-term contract would terminate at the end of the month, following the notice period.
“(DC Security) was one of the parties who submitted a bid for the supply of certain security services to the (provincial government). Certain other parties (including DC Security) who had submitted bids, were dissatisfied with several of the decisions made by the first respondent in the adjudication and implementation of this tender process.
“No doubt, this triggered the institution of the review proceedings. These various review applications were consolidated and were argued in the middle of September 2020. Judgment was reserved and has yet to be delivered. I mention that the fifth respondent took no active role in opposing this interim application…The domino effect of this delayed judgment hindered the awarding of any further ‘security services’ contracts in accordance with the tender process. As it remained necessary to provide these security services, the applicant continued to provide these security services in terms of yet another discrete agreement. The applicant had previously provided these services in terms of a tender awarded to it, some two years prior,” said Wille.
The WCG argued that the company’s employees would not suffer “irreparable harm” if the short-term contract with DC Security was terminated, and that it would be “merely a commercial consequence of the coming to an end of a contract” and that employees would “change uniforms”.
“(WCG) also say that this harm will most probably not occur as the applicant’s employees will simply fall to be re-employed. On this, I disagree because it cannot be assumed as a racing certainty that the employees of DC Security will be re-employed by the fifth respondent,” said Wille.
Granting the interim relief application, Wille interdicted government respondents from purporting to terminate any of the contracts under which DC Security is currently rendering security services in the Winelands Area and specifically the hospital situated in Paarl.
Cape Times