Judgment No. SC 10/18
Criminal Appeal SC 185/14
by the applicant in this case. The order by BARTLETT J was not erroneously applied for
or erroneously granted. The variation applied for does not involve the correction of an
error or omission in the order so that it accurately expresses the intention of the court.
I am being asked to delete ss 1 and 2 of the original order and substitute in their places
the declarations requested by the applicant, without it being said what is to happen to the
default judgment on which the order sought to be mutilated now stands. Although called
an amendment, what is being applied for is to all intents and purposes a complete
substitution of the terms and content of one order with those of another order.
Can one set aside an order and substitute in its place a completely different matter without
doing violence to the sense and substance of the judgment or the intention of the court
that granted the order? The sense and substance of the original order will be changed….”
The facts that confronted the court in HC154/14 do not fall within the kind of facts
that are contemplated by r 449 or would justify the invocation of the rule. Even if the court in
HC154/14 was substantively correct in its views on the issue of the provision for the payment
of interest, and the court in HC4641/13 was wrong, the proper remedy available to the
respondent in that situation would have been an appeal and not rescission as was sought herein.
However, as indicated earlier, the substantive correctness of the decision of the court a quo in
HC4641/13 is not for this Court to determine in these proceedings. It is the propriety of the
application of r 449 in HC154/14 that is.
It is for these reasons that we found that the appeal had merit and proceeded to
grant the order that we did as recorded at the beginning of this judgment.
ZIYAMBI JA:
I agree
HLATSHWAYO JA:
I agree
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