The time to secure dates for opposed motions has grown from 12 weeks to nine calendar months from the time a request for a date is filed. This increase in the time period has been within 2 years. According to the Johannesburg Deputy Judge President's office, the optimal lead time should be no longer than 6 to 8 weeks from the date of request. Prior to 8 April 2025, the Practice Directives allowed parties to be allocated opposed motion hearing dates when their matters were not yet ripe for hearing. By way of example, on the opposed motion roll of 25 April 2025, 31 of 73 cases were not compliant with the practice directives. This means that 42% of the matters that were allocated a hearing date were not ripe for hearing. As a result, ripe cases were deprived of being allocated a date within a reasonable time, and the urgent court has faced significantly more matters as a consequence of the longer time periods to secure hearing dates.
To improve lead times, on 8 April 2025, Judge President issued a notice detailing various changes to be effected to the enrolment procedure in the opposed motion court at the Johannesburg High Court. The notice amended paragraph 25 (titled 'The Opposed Motion Court') to Practice Directive 1 of 2024 in Johannesburg.
- It is noted that Heads of argument in opposed motions: Both the applicant and respondent must (rather than 'may') file heads of argument.
- If a party has failed to file its heads of argument within the
prescribed time period:
- The aggrieved party must make a formal demand to comply on 3 days' notice, failing which an application must be made in the Special Interlocutory Court for a compelling order. If the delinquent party fails to comply timeously, or at all, the aggrieved party shall apply for an order compelling the delinquent party to comply within 5 days of service of that order.
- If the delinquent party continue to remain in default after the
compelling order:
- The aggrieved party must declare in the relevant compliance statement (Form 5.1) that the delinquent party is in contempt of the compelling order and seek an order holding the delinquent party in contempt as well as an order striking out the delinquent party's claim or defence;
- The aggrieved party shall thereafter seek an enrolment from the registrar upon the basis set out in the compliance statement; and
- All the documents relevant to the delinquency must be uploaded in a section titled 'Delinquency' on Court Online / Case Lines.
- In respect of 'final enrolment of opposed
motions':
- The opposed motion court roll closes at noon 20 clear court days (which was previously 12 clear court days) preceding the hearing date, which includes (rather than 'excludes') opposed applications for summary judgment enrolled in the opposed motion court.
- The only matters that should remain on the final roll are those in which the bundle has been completed and indexed in the prescribed manner. This must be attended to one court day before the commencement of the 20-day period referred to above before the allocated hearing date.
- Any matter that is enrolled despite non-compliance would be removed from the roll unless a full and satisfactory explanation in writing is provided to the senior Judge by no later than 20 court days (rather than 12 court days) before the date of formal set down.
- The period of 12 court days was increased to 20 court days with regard to the uploading of a practice note to Court Online before the week in which the matter is set down when agreeing, or failing to agree, to dispose of an opposed motion without oral argument.
- A joint practice note must address whether there is agreement on the mode of hearing – in physical court or by video link. The joint practice note must be filed on Court Online and emailed to the senior judge by no later than 20 court days prior to the week in which the matter has been set down.
The registrar is directed to strictly apply the directive with immediate effect to all requests for enrolments and the changes to the various time periods take effect from 1 May 2025 – except for paragraph 25.12 (which requires a full and satisfactory written explanation to be provided to the senior judge in the event of non-compliance with the final enrolment process), which takes immediate effect.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
