Several cases affirm ‘that when you are buying a vehicle, you are buying from a bank’ says the man who has been fighting the matter for more than two decades. Picture: Moneyweb Former Department of Health communications executive Mzukisi Ndara may turn out to be that one customer – to paraphrase Clint Eastwood from the movie Gran Torino – you probably shouldn’t have messed with. In 2004, while still a government employee, he purchased a 2004 Nissan X-Trail, believing he was getting a 2.2 litre diesel manual demonstration vehicle.
It later turned out to be a used vehicle, though he was charged for a new X-Trail 2.5 litre petrol automatic, as well as extras that were non-existent. He has been on a 21-year quest for justice, an astonishing investment of time and money over a vehicle costing R297 990. As Moneyweb previously reported, the ‘new’ vehicle he purchased was actually a demonstration model with several thousand kilometres on the clock, which means it should have been discounted to R270 000.
Included in the sales price were ‘fictitious’ extras valued at R35 340. His case has been defeated at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and twice at the Constitutional Court (ConCourt). For most people, that would be the end of the legal road.
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Not for Ndara. He has now served papers in the ConCourt against the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the head of the office of the Chief Justice, and a host of officials at the court. He is taking on the highest court in the land, arguing it has failed in its duty to uphold the Constitution and its own rules.
He wants the court’s denial of his application for leave to appeal an SCA ruling, as well as a rescission application against him, to be set aside on the grounds of procedural irregularities. In his papers before the ConCourt, he raises questions others at the losing end of justice have similarly asked: given the ConCourt’s required leniency for lay litigants, why was his application rejected by the court registrar with a demand that he file a new one to be addressed to the registrar? On whose authority, and what is the legal basis for this?
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