Prince of Pot

Noseweek Issue #188, 1st June 2015   By Helen Grange


Prince of Pot

The law is supposed to be fair and reasonable – but sometimes it isn’t.

Mr & Mrs Tafari’s dagga-growing tenant has been occupying – and trashing – their R2m Simon's Town home, rent-free, for the past three years.

They have been forced to defend eleven separate court hearings before eight different judges, before they were able, finally, to evict their Rastafarian squatter.

Guess who, in the meantime has been required – by law – to pay the bond, rates, water and electricity?

Evicted Rasta lawyer, Gareth Prince,  blames prejudice against marijuana cult for his running battle with desperate landlords.

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Keywords:
Rastafarian
Lawsuit
Lawyer
Landlord
Tenant
Eviction
Rights
South African
Gareth Prince
Tafari
Constitutional Court
Security Of Tenure
Right To Shelter
Just And Equitable
Western Cape High Court
Judge Siraj Desai
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Submitted by : Pete Swanepoel of MONTCLAIR on 2015-06-06 13:55:38
To those who might call for "legal reform" (meaning less rights to appeal): Don't throw people's right to appeal and to seek relief out just because of one loony unemployed lawyer. Most people in fact don't access their rights, so please don't call for diminished rights based on this crazy and unusual case. That's my plea.
The JSC (or whoever) SHOULD, however check all these cases - Were the judges who assisted this unusual character correct? Did he lie to the judge when he got a new case number? Check what actually happened, don't just dive for undoing necessary laws.
 
Submitted by : Philip Bam of Cape Town on 2015-06-02 07:39:22
Our constitution and the PIE Act protects both landlord and tenant but it appears as if the owner was seriously let down by our judicial system. The tenant is obviously not ignorant of the law of contracts and he should have paid his rent. If people are recklessly negligent, they should not cry foul.

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