Oasis Group Holdings has dropped its case against Judge Siraj Desai and has offered to pay his costs, the company said at the weekend.
”The company prefers to focus its energy and commitment on more important and rewarding matters than this particular individual,” said the asset management company in an announcement in a full-page advertisement in the Sunday Times.
”It therefore withdraws both its constitutional challenge and its defamation charge against Desai with immediate effect.”
Oasis had been challenging Section 25 of the Supreme Court Act. It had also charged Desai with defamation in connection with remarks the judge allegedly made at a public meeting held to discuss a property development.
Oasis sued Desai for R250 000 or an apology in three Cape newspapers.
”The Constitutional Court application would be an extremely lengthy process and the company has already pursued this seemingly straightforward defamation matter for more than five years — to little avail and without much indication that the ends of justice will be swiftly served.
”Once the constitutional matter has been finalised, the appeals process available to Desai could take a further five to seven years to resolve,” said Oasis.
The company said it believed that the ”scales of life will ultimately prevail where the scales of justice sometimes do not”.
Earlier this month Oasis accepted that Cape Judge President John Hlophe had not validly given it permission to sue Desai, as required by the Supreme Court Act when a judge is a defendant in a civil case.
The section of the Act that Oasis was challenging concerns the requirement for consent to sue a judge. – Sapa