Judgment from the Johannesburg High Court. This was an appeal against a final protection order granted by the Randburg Magistrates Court. The appellant claimed that the magistrate erred in finding that the parties were in a ‘domestic relationship’ and in finding that the appellant’s denial of the respondent’s version bears no evidential weight. The parties are siblings. The respondent had claimed that the appellant sexually abused her when they were minors, and that the appellant made numerous threats of violence against her. The appellant failed to deal with the detailed allegations against him, relying instead on bare denial. Mudau J considered the SCA decisions in Daffy v Daffy (in which it was determined that a domestic relationship involves persons sharing a common household, not merely blood relatives) and Tsobo v Tsobo which emphasised that the purpose of the DV Act was to protect vulnerable members of society, and ultimately dismissed the appeal with costs.
