Cape Town - A Western Cape High Court judge has ordered that a National Freedom Party (NFP) politician, Granville Carlson, who has “persistently instituted legal proceedings without reasonable grounds” be gazetted as a “vexatious litigant”.
Under the Vexatious Proceedings Act, “an applicant can seek an interdict against any person who has persistently and without any reasonable ground instituted legal proceedings against another person”.
NFP parliamentary leader Shaik Emam, who made the application, told the court Carlson’s conduct over recent years had necessitated the application.
Emam said he brought the application to stop Carlson from persistently launching and continuing with ill-founded, irresponsible, and vexatious litigation.
Carlson, who represented himself in the case, has lawsuits not only against Emam, but also against other parties such as the justice and correctional services minister and the police minister.
In her ruling, Acting Judge Phillipa van Zyl said: “That there may be some truth (albeit not in all circumstances) in the old adage that ‘he who represents himself has a fool for a client’ is unfortunately illustrated by the particular facts of this case.
“By this I mean no disrespect to the respondent, but simply that a lay person (understandably) may lose perspective in matters where his own interests are at stake, especially where he is not guided by objective and considered advice from an experienced legal practitioner.”
The judge quoted a number of suits Carlson had lodged against Emam including two occasions, firstly on October 7, and November 11, 2022, when Carlson launched urgent applications seeking interdictory relief against Emam, without meeting any of the requirements for the grant of interdictory relief.
“These applications were necessary, so the respondent explains, because he believes that the applicant is lying to the court in his plea to the damages claim. Both urgent applications were struck off the roll.”
Judge Van Zyl ordered that Carlson would not be allowed to institute any legal proceedings against Emam in any division of the high court of South Africa or in any magistrate’s court without permission from either court, or or any judge of the high court, as the case may be.
“The registrar is directed to cause a copy of this order to be published in the government gazette, as contemplated in the act.”