Mamba and Others v Central Bank of Swaziland and Others (4536 of 2008) [2009] SZHC 192 (18 August 2009)

HIGH COURT OF SWAZILAND

Held at Mbabane

Qhawe Mamba

1^st Applicant Ultimate Productions (Pty) Ltd 2nd Applicant Jouz Media (Pty) Ltd

3rd Applicant

Channel S Proposed Savings & Credit Co-operative Society Limited

4th Applicant

vs

The Central Bank of Swaziland

1^st Respondent First National Bank of Swaziland

2^nd Respondent Nedbank Swaziland Limited

3^rd Respondent Standard Bank Swaziland Limited

4^th Respondent

Civil Case No.4536/08

Coram

For Applicants

MAPHALALA PJ

ADV. N. KADES SC (instructed by S.V. MDLADLA)

For Respondents

ADV. JOUBERT SC

(instructed by MAGAGULA & HLOPHE)

RULING 18^th AUGUST 2009

[1] Before court is an application for amendment of prayer 1 of the Notice of Motion of the 12 August 2009. The application is for deleting of the phrase "an order" at the commencement of the prayer and also to delete the phrase "an order" in prayer 2 thereof.

[2] The Respondents vigorously oppose this application on the ground that Respondents would be prejudiced by the said amendment.

[3] According to the legal authority in Herbstein et al, The Civil Practice of the Supreme Court of South Africa, 4^th Edition at page 514 a court has a discretion to allow a party to amend his pleadings or in the case of an application, to file further affidavits at any time prior to judgement (See Benjamin vs Subac S.A. Building & Construction (Pty) Ltd 1989(4) S.A. 940 (C) at 957 G-H).

[4] In argument before me it emerged that Respondents did not object to the amendment so long as the matter is not postponed to another date. Respondents submitted that the information sought by the Applicants can be made available to the Applicants tomorrow morning and therefore they will be no need for a long postponement of the matter.

In the circumstances of the case I grant the application for amendment with costs. Further that the matter proceeds without any further ado.

S.B. MAPHALALA Principal Judge