Cape Town - A convicted criminal’s bizarre and continued “vexatious litigation” campaign against a National Freedom Party (NFP) member has been halted by the Western Cape High Court.
Granville Carson, a convicted murderer and robber representing himself in the matter, had tried to get NFP member and parliamentary leader Ahmed Emam to pay him R300 million for allegedly defaming and stopping him (Carson) from becoming a party member.
Emam took the matter to court and averred that Carson’s conduct over recent years had necessitated the application to stop him from persistently “launching and continuing with ill-founded, irresponsible, and vexatious litigation”.
According to the judgment, Emam is not the only victim of vexatious litigation brought on by Carson as the convict has also set his sights on other parties for legal battles such as the Minister of Justice and Correctional
Services, and the Minister of Police.
Carson in his litigation against Emam, had - according to court documents - appeared to bribe a number of people to continue his witchhunt of Emam.
In his judgment, high court Acting Judge P van Zyl, said: “(Carson) commenced what cannot be described otherwise than as a dedicated campaign of litigation against (Emam) as a result of his belief that Emam caused him (Carson) to be excluded from the political party of which Emam is a member. It appears from the facts set out on record - very briefly stated - that, although Emam had initially been willing to allow him to become involved in the party, Emam subsequently discovered that Carson had been convicted of murder and robbery in 2000, and had served a long period of imprisonment as a result.
“This conviction excluded Carson from becoming a member of the party by virtue of certain provisions in the party’s constitution which excluded persons having been convicted of so-called Schedule 5 and 6 offences from membership,” said Van Zyl.
However, Carson would not accept the reasons and interpreted it as a “personal rejection engineered” by Emam to stop his membership and has since been “ruthless in pursuit of what he perceives to be justice”.
Carson had taken several steps in a variety of forums - all of which failed - and included formal complaints against the Department of the South African Police Service, the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, and the NPA’s Western Cape branch.
In his attempt to get Emam to pay him R300m for defamation, he has been publicly outspoken about the matter.
Acting Judge Van Zyl said that whatever Carson’s motivation for the litigation was, “his conduct cannot be allowed to continue in an uncontrolled fashion”.
“He has, for example, written to Emam’s secretary at Parliament in relation to this claim, that ‘you are well aware how you disadvantage me with a lie in an affidavit concurring with your boss’s lie.
“As you know or don’t know, I am suing him for R300 million and have an order for him not to enlist or mislead any department that he so gladly uses to cover up his criminal activities. If you decide to testify against him you will keep your job as the secretary and I will give you R1 million for your efforts.’
Carson also attempted to convince Emam to settle the claim by paying him an amount of R120 million,” the judgment read.
Acting Judge Van Zyl declared Carson a vexatious litigant and further ordered that he is not allowed to institute any legal proceedings against Carson in any Division of the High Court of South Africa or in any inferior court without the leave of the inferior court or of the High Court or any judge of the High Court.
Cape Times