Justice grinds to a halt as 6-million documents held hostage in dispute over department’s R84m bill
Six-million court documents, including divorce orders and marriage certificates, are being "held hostage" in an R84m dispute between the company storing them and the Department of Justice. Last week the Pretoria High Court ordered Mmela Investment Holdings to hand over the 6-million files to the department, but the handover is expected to take months, given the sheer volume of documents. Lawyers for Mmela said it planned to appeal the ruling. The Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town High Courts as well as the Johannesburg and Durban Magistrate's Courts are all affected by this dispute. Judge Cynthia Pretorius's judgment reads: "Original marriage certificates, divorce orders and settlement agreements cannot be accessed. All files from 1987 to 2010 are inaccessible, as well as some files from 2010 to 2015, which are stored off site. "There is a list of pending requests for court files and a letter from an attorney complaining that the attorneys cannot obtain divorce orders, as request...
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