Johannesburg - Tasima won’t give up on losing control of the multimillion-rand eNatis system without a fight. The company now claims last week’s court order granting an eviction application from their headquarters in Midrand “was illegal and unlawful”.
The eviction of Tasima’s officials and staff members followed the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria’s ruling on Monday that found its continued control of the eNatis system was in contravention of the Constitutional Court order made on 9 November 2016.
The Constitutional Court ordered Tasima to hand over eNatis to the Road Traffic Management Corporation within 30 days after the ruling.
In December, Tasima lodged an application in the Constitutional Court asking the 11 judges to explain their ruling. Their application was unanimously dismissed in February but they continued to control the system.
This prompted the RTMC to approach the high court, asking it to enforce the Constitutional Court order, including evicting Tasima officials and its staff members from their headquarters - which is a national keypoint - in Midrand.
On Monday, Judge Neil Tuchten ruled in favour of the RTMC, including ordering the Sheriff of the Court to serve an eviction order against Tasima. Tasima appealed against the ruling but Judge Tuchten on Wednesday dismissed its application.
That led to the sheriff issuing an eviction order for Tasima officials and their staff from the premises. But Tasima is now crying foul, claiming the eviction was illegal. They allege that the RTMC was fully aware they had petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal to challenge Judge Tuchten’s ruling.
'Pre-empting the appeal process'
Tasima has written to the legal representative of the RTMC, Dexter Selepe, complaining that “your clients forcibly took control of the premises and the system in order to bring about an immediate transfer of the system and to pre-empt the appeal process and any order which may be made by the SCA pursuant to the SCA application”.
Tasima through its lawyer, Vlad Movshovich, said Selepe and the RTMC’s failure to restore the system and premises to Tasima was and remains “unlawful as a matter of common law and statute”.
“We place it on record that your clients, and particularly RTMC, have unlawfully wrested control of the premises and the system, contrary to our clients' very clear indication, in countless court papers and correspondence.”
Tasima further claimed that “such a precipitous and disorderly transfer, in the absence of a plan, would lead to myriad problems”.
Movshovich demanded that the RTMC allow Tasima officials access to the building to remove their documents by Monday.
R133m allegedly owed
Tasima is also demanding payment of R133 million allegedly owed to them by the Department of Transport since October, by Thursday.
It has vowed to serve invoices for March and April.
Tasima board member Fannie Mahlangu has also filed an urgent notice of appeal to the SCA against Judge Tuchten’s ruling. Mahlangu said they were now proposing the RTMC and Transport Department be given until 19 April to deliver their answering affidavits.
They would then reply on 26 April.
On Friday, however, the RTMC was adamant they followed all court orders in evicting Tasima. RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane said the actions of the sheriff of the court were in line with Judge Tuchten’s ruling. Zwane said the eviction of Tasima happened within 30 minutes after the court ruling, saying they were only served with appeal papers after 2pm on Wednesday after the eviction was executed.
Zwane said meetings had been scheduled with Tasima to finalise all issues regarding the handover.