Pretoria - It was not a good day in court for EFF leader Julius Malema and his party, as two costs orders were awarded against him on Wednesday morning in two different cases. This, while his legal woes largely stem from costs orders against him.
He and his party faced five costs orders against them issued by the courts in favour of AfriForum. An amount of R126 703 was paid into AfriForum’s bank account on Tuesday in relation to one of the cost orders - one which the EFF had agreed to. Wednesday’s cost orders now left Malema and his party with four unpaid orders.
The outstanding amount to AfriForum on Wednesday morning - before two more costs orders piled up - stood at R211 000.
An urgent application brought by Malema and the EFF to stay the execution of a warrant to sell the assets of the EFF on public auction to recover the outstanding costs was struck from the roll by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, due to a lack of urgency. This came with another cost order against Malema and his party.
AfriForum obtained a warrant on November 1 this year from the court to seize the movable assets of Malema and the EFF to pay an amount of R337 758.68 owed to it by Malema in his personal capacity, and the EFF as party.
The costs incurred were due to costs orders awarded against him and the party during previous litigation with AfriForum.
The Sheriff attached the movable assets of the EFF at its office in Johannesburg last Friday (November 9). The assets have not yet been removed to be sold at public auction. AfriForum said it would give the party and Malema ample warning once if wanted to sell the assets and it was willing to negotiate with them about the issue.
Malema and the EFF said it did not trust this undertaking and it wanted it made an order of the court.
Malema and the EFF asked Judge Johan Louw to urgently stay the sale of execution, as it said it was heading to the Constitutional Court later this month to challenge “apartheid law” - the Riotous Assembly Act - which is the subject of one of the costs orders against it.
Malema also filed an application late on Tuesday that he intended asking for leave to appeal an interdict issued by the court months ago which barred him and his party from encouraging the landless to occupy vacant land. The interdict obtained in the absence of Malema and his party- as they failed to attend the proceedings - resulted in another cost order against him.
He and his party wanted that order rescinded early this year, but they once again did not pitch and yet another cost order was awarded against them.
It was argued on their behalf that the pending litigation suspended the costs orders.
Judge Louw, however, found that they have created their own urgency as they knew about these matters for a very long time, yet they only now rushed to court.
Malema and the EFF meanwhile scored another cost order against them early on Wednesday, when they were not ready to proceed with a contempt of court application against them.
AfriForum asked for an order to jail Malema for six months and to fine the EFF with R500 000 for allegedly ignoring the order interdicting them from inciting illegal land invasions.
In this case, the EFF offered to pay the legal costs as it was at fault for not being ready to proceed.
Malema was meanwhile not in court to witness the piling-up of the costs orders against him and his party.