DURBAN - THE Pietermaritzburg High Court has ruled in favour of horse trainer Anil Maharaj in a marathon racial discrimination case against horse-racing and betting agency Gold Circle.
Maharaj first approached the Durban Equality Court in 2008 after numerous incidents of alleged racism against him, but the matter was dismissed, with his appeal.
He had decided on legal action when Gold Circle first refused to lease him boxes to house his horses at the Summerveld Training Centre, outside Shongweni, after his return from Australia in the late 1990s.
He was eventually allowed to lease 14 boxes, but in 2007 Gold Circle also declined his application for stabling facilities.
This was not Maharaj’s first encounter with racial discrimination as his horse-training application was turned down by the Jockey Club of SA in 1989.
The club reasoned it would be setting a precedent because of his skin colour.
That decision prompted him to leave the country for Australia, where he was allowed to work in the horse-racing industry until he returned home in 1997, only to face more racial discrimination.
Maharaj was of the view that Gold Circle was punishing him because he had previously assaulted a white person at Summerveld.
However, he claimed that white people who had been involved in similar incidents were let off with a slap on the wrist.
In his appeal to the high court he said that “a fellow trainer, Charles Laird, had also committed an assault in March 2012 against a 60-year-old black employee of Gold Circle” but was allowed to continue using the stabling facilities.
White trainers from other provinces were also allowed to use the facilities, while Maharaj was denied, based on “moral” and “commercial” reasons, which the high court last week said seemed baseless and motivated by a lack of desire to give effect to the transformation goals entrenched in the KZN Gaming and Betting Act.
In 2013 he lodged a further complaint of unfair discrimination, citing the KZN Gambling Board as the first respondent, but the Equality Court ruled it had no jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
Last year his second application to use the stabling facilities at Gold Circle’s Summerveld facility was also declined, which saw him approaching the Equality Court yet again, but it ruled that the matter had already been judged and may not be pursued further by the same parties.
The ruling was apparently done without hearing Maharaj’s evidence or Gold Circle filing any affidavits. However, last week, Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Rishi Seegobin said the Equality Court was unfair to Maharaj.
“From the outset, the learned magistrate (GH van Rooyen) adopted a bombastic and belligerent attitude. He was extremely impatient and off-handish to the point of being rude,” said Seegobin.
Seegobin further accused Van Rooyen of being ill-prepared to preside over the matter as he had not even read all the related documents.
The matter was remitted back to the Durban Equality Court to commence before a different presiding officer and Gold Circle was ordered to pay the appellant’s costs of appeal.
“The judgment did not rule on the case itself, so what do you want me to say? I have no comment, that’s what you must print,” said Gold Circle’s chief executive, Michel Nairac, when asked for comment.
Chairperson of the KZN Gaming and Betting Board, Advocate Bethuel Khuzwayo, said he was not aware of the matter.