Jurisdictional dilemma ends in Grahamstown

A FULL bench of the court has declared Grahamstown as the main seat of the Eastern Cape High Court.

This decision lays to rest a jurisdictional dilemma in the Eastern Cape caused by the implementation of the Superior Courts Act in August last year. It is also likely to provide a guiding precedent to other provinces that may face similar jurisdictional issues between local and main seats of the high courts.

Prior to the promulgation of the act last year Judge Dayalin Chetty said the high courts of the Eastern Cape and the former homeland courts of the Transkei and Ciskei had operated independently of each other, exercising original territorial jurisdiction over their defined geographical areas. The point of the act had been to rationalise that existing court structure.

Judge Chetty said the act made it clear the seats of the Eastern Cape division -- the Bhisho, Mthatha and Port Elizabeth high courts -- retained their jurisdictions over specified territorial areas, while the main seat in Grahamstown enjoyed jurisdiction over "the entire province of the Eastern Cape".

Judge Mandela Makaula and Acting Judge Richard Brooks agreed with Chetty.

This means that anyone from any area in the Eastern Cape can choose to litigate in Grahamstown rather than in the local divisions.

But Chetty made it clear that the Grahamstown High Court would not countenance litigants from far away being "hauled" before it if the court felt that they would be better served in the local divisions closer to home. - Adrienne Carlisle