Page:Geldenhuys v NDPP.djvu/9

Rh of this Court did send the directions to the State Attorney, Johannesburg by facsimile transmission. Nor does it appear that the lawyers made any enquiries of the Registrar when they did not receive the directions. Moreover, written argument by the other parties was duly served on the Johannesburg State Attorney. At that stage, it should have been realised that directions had been issued by the Court and the matter was proceeding. The representative explained that the State Attorney thought that the written argument dealt only with the merits of the application for leave to appeal against the convictions, a matter in which the Minister had no interest. Of course, this is not the case as the application for leave to appeal against the convictions had been dismissed summarily by this Court on 14 May 2008, as has been described above, and the written argument lodged by the applicant dealt with the declaration of invalidity. According to the representative, the Minister’s lawyers thus only became aware of the proceedings on 12 August 2008 when they were contacted by the representatives of the second respondent.

The representative of the Department emphasised that the delay was due to a simple error and not in any way due to wilful default. Although the error, in my view, is less than simple and borders on negligence, if not incompetence, I accept that the delay was not due to wilfulness.

The general rule is that non-compliance with the Rules of this Court will be condoned when it is in the interests of justice to do so. In the circumstances of this Rh