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Article 40/2025

Is it a requirement that each page of an affidavit must be initialled?

Is it a requirement that every page of every annexure to an affidavit must be initialled?

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The LC, in Ellsworth John O’Connor v LexisNexis (Pty) Ltd (2024) 35 SALLR 124 (LC), had the following to say in respect of the above questions:

  • it pointed out that in casu, while the founding affidavit had been properly commissioned on the last page, every other page had not been initialled by either the applicant or the commissioner
  • the LC was, however, satisfied that there was no defect in the founding affidavit because, on the authority of Minister of Safety and Security and Others v Mohamed and Another (2) [2010] 4 All SA 538 (WCC), at [26], initialling every page is not a requirement for the validity of an affidavit
  • in the LC’s viewpoint, initialling every page of an affidavit certainly represents best practice, because it gives the court confidence that the words used in the affidavit are really those of the deponent – however, initialling every page of the annexures also appeared to be unnecessary, as the other party would always be free to dispute the authenticity of those documents, whether they were initialled or not
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In Article 31, we dealt with the distinction between desertion and abscondment.

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