Mpumalanga High Court functional in Mbombela

MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga High Court has been bringing justice to the people of our province since the first day of this month. This was confirmed by judge, Mr Francis Legodi on Friday.

“Judge president Mr Dunstan Mlambo established the court from February 1,” he said in an interview with Lowvelder. “We are very excited to announce this. Since that day, pleadings in more than 80 cases have been issued by the court. I can tell you that the local legal practitioners are even more excited than we are.” This was confirmed by human rights attorney Mr Richard Spoor.

“It’s wonderful news.” Spoor applied for an urgent interdict on Tuesday. He described it as a historic day and said that, whereas he usually had to travel to Pretoria for this kind of thing, he could now do it in Mbombela.

The court registrar’s office is on the first level of the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court building. The registrar, Mr Terence Mphekgwane, will be able to assist those with court-case queries. He has three senior admin clerks who assist him. The High Court courtroom is located on the fourth floor.

Legodi explained that the court’s main seat is in Mbombela, but it also has a local division in Middelburg. This can be compared to the Gauteng High Court that has a main division in Pretoria and a local division in Johannesburg. This was ordered by Mlambo and as a result attorneys and clients with offices closer to Middelburg, won’t have to travel all the way to Mbombela for court cases.

The High Court’s civil court will be a circuit court. For the first two weeks of every month, it will be seated in Middelburg. During this time, the courtroom in Mbombela will be used for criminal High Court cases. The civil court will then move to Mbombela for the next two weeks. “In other words, we have a High Court judge available at all times. If an urgent civil matter needs to be heard, the criminal court judge will attend to the urgent matter first before continuing with the criminal trial on the roll for the day.” Legodi added that additional courtrooms are available in Graskop and will be utilised for criminal cases, should the number of civil cases require such an arrangement.

“The judges who will head the court proceedings, will rotate. There are a number of us who will travel between Gauteng, Middelburg and Mbombela for this purpose,” he said.
“This is only the beginning,” Legodi said. “The construction of the High Court building is coming along nicely. Soon, we will have six criminal and six civil courtrooms.”

Legodi, an old Lowvelder, was delighted to be the bearer of this good news. He didn’t want to talk about himself too much, but Lowvelder was able to confirm that he worked in the city’s CBD in the eighties, as part of Phosa, Mojapele & Partners. Here, he worked alongside Dr Mathews Phosa and South Gauteng High Court deputy judge president Mr Phineas Mojapelo. Legodi also practised in Bushbuckridge before he moved to Gauteng, where he was eventually appointed as a judge of the North Gauteng High Court.

Also read: Mpumalanga High Court Construction update

Will the Court building be ready in June?