/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

Imagine you discover that an Unconstitutional fraud is being perpetuated on the people of South Africa by the banks. You spend over a year collecting evidence and research with specific reference to South African economics and South African law. You create a non-profit organisation, elicit the support of 150,000 people and lay it before the High Court as best you can.

This is the story of The New Economic Rights Alliance, aka: NewERA.

Most High Courts are designed like temples complete with pillars and arches. The walls outside are adorned with strange figures and symbols. A statue of a blindfolded woman holding up scales (that are usually off-balance) doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. Inside, the Courtroom is filled with men in black robes, bowing and praying to their Lord. Yes, South African advocates / barristers will literally bow and pray for judgment to man (or woman) who sits in a big high chair who is referred to as “My Lord.”

We the people are encouraged to believe that this dark and foreboding place is the only place that we can turn to find Justice in South Africa.

In practice, the Courts are an administrative mess. The registrar’s office is like Lusaka National Bank – massive queues, a lot of papers being stamped and lives held in the balance. Our legal system compares to the traffic grid in downtown Cairo: so bizarre, so contradictory and so embarrassing that nobody can even begin to fix it. Here is an example: the 1936 Insolvency Act states that if you can’t pay a debt of 50 British pounds then a creditor can have you “sequestrated” (declared bankrupt). This Act is so ancient they still have not changed the currency into Rands, but it is accepted that 50 pounds equates to R100. The last time that R2 bought you one pound was in 1982.

If a creditor forces you to be sequestrated, a team of liquidators (aka “sharks”) are employed to carve up your assets. Don’t laugh, it happens all the time and yes, this is one of the most abused pieces of legislation in our country. But that’s not the point. The point is this: someone else can sequestrate you at the drop of a hat. However, if you personally go to Court and ask for sequestration, in fact beg for sequestration, the Court can (and often does) turn around and say “No!”

It is nuts. Ludicrous. Psychotic.

A friend of mine was trying to get his i-phone to connect to my computer. While looking down at his phone, he chirped “I can’t find your laptop.” My girlfriend replied “it’s right in front of you.” She makes a damn good point: our system is so archaic and so blinded by its own arrogant, senseless money-making nonsense, that it can no longer see what is standing right in front of it. Justice is blind.

Watching the NewERA Court case was like watching a circus. An entire row of Senior Advocates represented the banks. A “silk” (that’s the name given to a Senior Advocate because of a plume of silk that puffs out of his neck) will bill around R50,000 for one morning’s work. One of them was Gilbert Marcus, brother of Gill Marcus who is the Chairman of the South African Reserve Bank.

The case took no more than 45 minutes to argue. 30 of those 45 minutes were spent arguing with the Judge about who was going to pay the legal costs. This is all true, I am not making it up. Alongside the silks were their junior advocates, instructing attorneys (including Norton Rose, one of the largest and most expensive law firms in the country), their clerks, their assistants and of course the clients (the banks) themselves.

And their main argument? NewERA makes no sense, they have no case and the whole thing should be thrown out immediately for being “vague and embarrassing.” (Oh yes, and NewERA should pay the bill).

“Squaring the circle” is an ancient geometric puzzle. Great mathematicians and philosophers like Hypocrites and Pythagoras could not solve it. Every step takes you closer to the solution, but no matter how much you persevere, you will never actually reach it. Every day our legal system tries to square the circle. It doesn’t work. It cannot work. Yet they continue to try and make it work.

Archimedes himself would have watched the NewERA spectacle gobsmacked. The natural laws of nature do not exist in Court. Firstly, the banks emphatically argue that they cannot understand NewERA’s papers. They say our case impossible to comprehend and is ultimately “vague and embarrassing.” Then they attempt to square the circle by justifying the rows upon rows of lawyers that were needed to reach to this conclusion. Have you ever watched an elephant wearing a dress trying to balance on one leg?  Then a guy riding a mono-cycle catapults himself on top of the elephant while juggling!

It is impossible, but somehow they manage to pull it off.

This is what NewERA is up against. According to the Judge, our lone junior advocate “argued valiantly.” Hooray! We are still in the game and must now amend our papers and try again. However, this time round we are required to remove all the evidence (try figure that one out Plato). And, in yet another attempt to square the circle, the Judge ruled that NewERA should only pay the fees for one opposing counsel. Here is a Court case that literally holds the livelihoods of millions of people in the balance. We have informed the Court of this extraordinary injustice that is being perpetuated on the people. Yet nothing of substance was argued! All that matters is who will pay the clowns.

The last straw, however, emanated from a Senior Counsel representing the South African Reserve Bank. He only got to speak for about three minutes (R17,000 per minute?), but in that time he managed to get off a memorable one liner: he argued that the South African Reserve Bank was a public interest group just like NewERA!

In the meantime, NewERA will file amended documents with renewed ferocity. Remember, we are not suing for money and our lawyers are acting pro-bono. We are trying to protect millions of South Africans from what we believe are blatant and unscrupulous actions of the banks. We need the Courts rule on the merits of this case. Is that too much to ask?

Be the first to know next time the circus comes to town. Keep up to date with NewERA at www.newera.org.za and http://www.facebook.com/NewEconomicRightsAlliance.