SWAZILAND
HIGH COURT
Titus
Kunene
Applicant
v
The
Minister of Works & Transport
1st
Respondent
The
Minister of Enterprise & Employment
2nd
Respondent
The
Government of The Kingdom Of Swaziland
3rd
Respondent
The
Attorney General
4th
Respondent
Case
No. 3049/2001
Coram SAPIRE,
CJ
For
Applicant L. MAMBA
For
Respondents P. MSIBI
JUDGMENT
(18/04/2002)
This
is an application in which the applicant approached the court on a
matter of urgency on the 14th day of November 2001. The grounds of
urgency were never demonstrated
2
Nonetheless
points in limine were argued on behalf of the respondents. The
parties had, prior to the hearing entered into a settlement in
respect of a portion of the claim and it had been agreed that the
respondents accepted liability for:
(a) payment
of an amount of E690 000
(b) interest
thereon at the rate of 9% per annum calculated from the date of the
contract on the 27th July 2001 amount at that stage E20 734.00
(c)
payment of the valuer's costs which amounted to 10% of the value of
the property in question which is E69 000.00
The
agreement of settlement was noted on the 23rd November and made an
order of court.
The
remaining claims were postponed to the 7th December, 2001 for
adjudication. On that date the matter came before me and the points
in limine were raised. The first point in limine was that the
application could not succeed in law because the applicant had not
complied with the provisions of Section 2 of the Limitations of Legal
Proceedings against the Government Act Number 21 of 1972. The failure
to comply was particularised as being the absence of a letter of
demand that is required by that Section.
There
appears to be no answer to that point in limine and the application
falls to be dismissed on this ground alone.
The
second ground dealt with the question of urgency and as I have
indicated there was no question of urgency at all in this case. In
order to discourage applicants from abusing the urgency procedures
the irregularity in this respect cannot be condoned and is another
reason for dismissing the application.
The
application is therefore dismissed with costs.
SAPIRE
CJ
