A nine-year feud between two warring neighbours at an exclusive housing estate in Gauteng has reached the SCA and cost a retired businessman R3m in legal fees – with no resolution in sight.

The conflict has become increasingly acrimonious over the years, with allegations of late-night partying and ‘inappropriate’ poolside tanning, angry shouting matches and even a thrown cake. 

At the heart of the dispute are renovations that Gerard da Silva made to his home at Eagle Canyon Golf Estate in Honeydew in 2015 – in contravention of estate rules and regulations.

Neighbour Roy Glasson has tried to compel the homeowners association to get Da Silva to reverse the renovations, to no avail.

According to Glasson’s court papers, Da Silva applied to the association to extend and renovate.

The Sunday Times reports that these plans were approved, opening the way for Da Silva to have them authorised by the City of Johannesburg.

However, Da Silva then had a new set of plans drawn up – allegedly significantly different to the original approved plans – which were not approved before they were submitted to the council.

At the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), the association argued they should not be compelled to take action against Da Silva, as this was a matter for the city to resolve, and that Da Silva should also have been cited in the court action.

But the court sided with Glasson, directing the association to comply with its contractual obligations to secure a partial demolition order for the top floor of Da Silva’s property and to take all steps necessary to ensure that his property was compliant with the rules of the estate.

Less than a year later, Glasson was back in court securing a contempt of court order against Da Silva for not complying with the ruling.

The Sunday Times reports that the association took the matter to the SCA, arguing it had made an effort to comply with the order and had not acted wilfully and in bad faith, an essential element for a finding of contempt.

SCA Acting Judge Sharise Wiener agreed and found that they could not be held in contempt.

Full Sunday Times report