The decision to postpone the matter follows a short deliberation between the legal counsel of the metro and residents.

Advocate Craig Snyman requested that judge Mareena Lani Opperman consider deferring the matter to 7 November 2019 to allow residents and their legal representative, Simba Chitando, to draft their responding affidavit.

Snyman says this will allow and enable both legal teams to deliver their points of arguments before the Free State High Court judge.

The metro is now sitting with a conundrum of having to serve a whole community with a summons in the matter.

This after some residents were unexpectedly summonsed with a court order in August, and as a result, appeared without representation. This lead to a face-off with the metro who aimed at obtaining interim relief against the residents after the contractor alleged that the residents had intimidated workers at a bus depot allocated for the controversial IPTN project following a series of protests.

OFM News/Elsabé Richard