In Nedbank Limited v Thobejane and 12 other
matters, Judge Tolmay J (with Deputy Judge President Ledwaba
and Judge Mothle concurring) addressed the increasingly common
tendency among litigants, especially commercial institutions, to
enrol matters in the High Court with monetary values falling within
the jurisdiction of the Magistrates' Court. The main defences
raised by the Commercial institutions were, inter alia,
inordinate delays, unnecessary queries as well as inefficiency
within the administration and staff in the Magistrate's
Court.
It was reported that there was an increasing enrolment of
unopposed matters that resulted in unopposed motion court rolls
having about 80 matters enrolled before a single Judge per day. An
estimate of 720 unopposed Applications are enrolled on a weekly
basis. This creates a difficult conundrum for Judges as they are
consequently left with insufficient time to prepare for matters.
This becomes especially problematic as the duty to
