Delta has been granted leave to appeal against the court decision that allowed a Pretoria man to display slogans on his vehicle slamming the manufacturer.
Delta has been granted leave to appeal against the court decision that allowed a Pretoria man to display slogans on his vehicle slamming the manufacturer.
Delta was granted an interim interdict in June last year forcing Jaco van der Merwe, son of Inkatha Freedom Party Chief Whip Koos van der Merwe, to remove slogans such as “the worst 4×4 by far” and “gravel road breaks chassis” from his Isuzu bakkie.
Van der Merwe claimed his Isuzu’s chassis bent while on holiday in Namibia in April 2001. The Isuzu was a year old and had about 29 000 km on the clock. He said Delta refused to replace or repair the vehicle, while Delta said the chassis could only have bent if subjected to misuse or negligence.
In November a High Court judge overturned the decision to prevent Van der Merwe from displaying the slogans. Delta was last week granted leave to appeal the decision at the second highest court in the country in Bloemfontein.
“Our original offer still stands to repurchase the vehicle on condition he has his vehicle evaluated by an independent body. But Jaco van der Merwe has still not responded,” a Delta spokesman told CARtoday.com.
“In order to expedite this matter, which has been dragging on for some time due to the customer’s lack of co-operation in allowing an impartial evaluation/arbitration to take place, we have also offered to re-purchase his vehicle at the current Mead and McGrouther retail rate whether the findings of the evaluation are in our favour or not,” Delta said in March when the offer was made.
Van der Merwe said it “would have been nice” if Delta’s leave to appeal had been turned down, but said he was not concerned. “This is a heavy-duty fight and it will last the full 12 rounds. But I’m still convinced that I will win,” he told CARtoday.com.
