13 September 2016
The South African Communist Party welcomes the Constitutional Court judgement handed down on Tuesday 13 September requiring judicial oversight whether Emolument Attachment Orders (EAOs), commonly known as garnishee orders are just, equitable and that the amount deducted from a worker's wages at payroll is appropriate. As part of its financial sector campaign aimed at transforming the industry, the SACP has campaigned tirelessly against the abuse of garnishee orders. The judgement constitutes an important victory for workers across the board.
The financial sector, particularly unscrupulous credit dealers, or creditors and financial services providers of other sorts, were abusing the court system. In many cases the abuse was not without the collusion of their inside job lackeys, who served at the pleasure of the money dealers or so-called financial services providers paying themselves from workers wages willy-nilly abusing garnishee orders as a means of payment without any regard to the impact on workers' take home pay, workers and their dependents.
The Constitutional Court judgement reaffirmed an order made by the Western Cape High Court last year, that some contents of Section 65J(2) of the Magistrates' Court Act were inconsistent with the Constitution, and that the Act failed to provide judicial oversight over the granting of the so-called EAOs or garnishee orders. Unscrupulous money dealers in the Western Cape were obtaining garnishee orders in different court jurisdiction areas, most probably which is where they had suspicious connections, and then demanding that such garnishee orders be enforced elsewhere in that province. The Western Cape High Court ruled against the conduct, by exempting employers from enforcing and thus workers from the enforcement of garnishee orders obtained in another court jurisdiction or province.
The SACP is calling on the Magistrates' Court Act to be amended in line with the Constitutional Court judgement and reiterates its call to the Chief Justice to investigate abuse and corruption in the court system. The judgement reinforces the material basis to proceed with the investigation!
Issued by the SACP
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