Hi Leon.

Could you please tell us who the new Chairman is? May we assume that it is Mr. Craske, seeing that half the committee actually lives in his street?

When I bought my house in the San Marina two years ago, I was informed by the estate agent that I was required to pay subs to the SMRC. At that point, I didn’t play tennis, my property had its own pool, and my kids had already outgrown swings and roundabouts. Nevertheless, I accepted this responsibility and have paid my subs ever since. Oddly enough, I have never had any threatening letters or comments from this, or any other Chairman; I have never been handed over to a collections agency; and I have never felt the need to lobby anyone else to sign petitions aimed at substantiating my own negative feelings about the club. Weird, ain’t it?

In fact, I eventually decided that since I was paying subs, I may as well use the facilities – and I’m now quite enjoying my tennis. My major complaint is that the new walls are doing too good a job of keeping my tennis balls on the court, so my weight loss efforts are being hampered by not having to run around the clubhouse every five minutes like I used to when the balls rolled under the broken fence!

What nobody on this website has ever acknowledged is that no amount of begging, pleading or friendly reminders have ever proven successful in getting people to pay what they know they should (but choose not to). Whilst I don’t necessarily condone the threatening tone he takes at times, the way Leon Lee is managing the collection of subs (ie via threat of legal action) is the only way these collections can, and should, be managed.

Think about it. You might not like the fact that you have to drive 60kmh on our city roads. You probably never had a say in deciding that this was the appropriate speed. And you may be canvassing people to sign a petition to local government to change the speed limit or do away with it altogether. But none of these things change the fact that you still have to drive 60kmh or face the legal consequences.

And calling the traffic cops who catch you, or the lawyer who prosecutes you, Robert Mugabe is certainly not going to do you any favours.

The bottom line? Pay your subs. If you don’t want to, move somewhere else. Then Leon won’t have to keep on pestering you – and you (and he) will undoubtedly be a whole lot happier. Oh, and try a bit of tennis. The endorphins will make you feel a lot better.

Oh, one last thought. Given the apparent crisis that the payment of the R50 subs is causing in the lives of so many residents, I would urge everyone to drop the idea of the San Marina security plan. It’s highly likely that in a few months’ time this scheme will suffer a similar mutiny as people suddenly realise that would prefer to spend the R80 per month on pizza. And the poor individuals who initiated the scheme will be left footing the bill.

Hi David.

All very true, if:

1)you were notified of your enforced membership BEFORE you bought your property;

2)your membership has not been revoked at a legally convened AGM by all members present at the meeting;

3)your title deed stipulates you have to belong to the club (although this may not be as clear-cut as it seems).

In Cathy’s case, she was not informed of any enforced membership of any club. Cathy’s title deed only makes mention of some vague “schedule of conditions” in some or other Section. These were not made available to her before transfer. Basically, she was conned into belonging to a social club. The Bill of Rights no. 18 states that everyone has the freedom of association, and seeing that this is actually a social club, I think that she is well within her rights to belong or not to belong as she pleases.

I think that this was the thinking when the AGM of April 2005 when members of the club decided that she no longer had to be a member. Of course, the fact that membership of the club is not expressly referred to in her title deed would also have played a major role in this decision.

Cathy was not billed for any membership fees since 2005, but early this year, she all of a sudden received an account again. How can the club unilaterally decide to re-instate her membership? Her enforced membership was revoked by mutual consent and she never wanted to be a member again. Since when can one enforce a contract which is only agreed to by one of the parties thereto?

The property of the club also does not “belong” to her, as it seems to do in Leon’s case. Leon’s title deed actually stipulates that he is an owner. So here you have a situation where some members are owners, and some are not.

It must be remembered that this is a social club. The club is a legal entity in its own right. It even owns property. I seriously doubt whether membership can be enforced, title deed condition or not, but this would be for the courts to decide. Remember, the Club came into being before our new National Constitution with its liberating “Bill of Rights”.

Personally, I believe that Leon’s title deed stating that he is an owner is a mistake on someone’s part, but again, this is a point for the courts or the Deeds Office to decide. Be it as it may, it is still very confusing and rather prejudicial if it were true.

The rules of the club do provide for the club to be dissolved. Cathy and others are fully within their rights to canvass the area in order to gain support for this move and must be allowed to do so without threats and intimidation. (Human Right number 17: Everyone has the right to Assembly, demonstration, picket and petition.)

No doubt, some people have to belong to the club and pay their fees. You certainly seem to fit that bill and I am glad you have found a way to make it work for you. In other cases, the lines are a bit more hazy.

I salute Cathy for trying to do what she feels is right. It is hard work, but she does seem to have a lot of support, considering the number of people who have already signed her petition.

I am sure that Leon tries his very best to be a good chairman. He should however learn to mind his manners. His personal attacks and threats are at the very least distasteful and I would even venture to say, in some cases, serously unlawful. I condemn it with every fibre in my body and in this regard I can only say: “Fight the cause, not the person”.

Yes, Leon, I do live by that statement that I fight the cause and not the person. I cannot take responsibility for what others write on the blog, nor do I intend to get into a mud-slinging match with you about who said what but you are welcome to study my comments and posts. I do however suggest you re-read some of your own comments and try to picture someone else saying those things to you.

The blog was started without my knowledge and I happened to come across it on the internet a few hours later when I was doing an internet search on Marina da Gama. As far as I know the blog’s purpose is to be a forum for the people of Marina da Gama. San Marina is part of Marina da Gama and the club is part of San Marina, therefore quite an appropriate discussion point.

I did not go to the Marina da Gama Association’s AGM because I do not consider myself to be a member.

I have personally seen an extensive list of signatures collected by Cathy and others, but cannot verify the exact number of signatures collected. She certainly does have a pretty significant support-base though.

There is one issue you could clarify for us though. The matter of the April 2005 AGM where a whole list of people were declared non-members of the club. How did it come about that they are now all of a sudden members again?

Ah, my apologies Leon. It was a Committee Meeting of the club on either the 13th or the 14th of April 2005.

Curious indeed, seeing that I saw the communication from the managing agents at the time confirming that they were no longer members. Strange that the managing agent would send such a communication if it were not true.

Hey, here’s an idea… Why don’t you make those minutes available online. Then we can all take a look at them and judge for ourselves.

Ha! The veil of secrecy drops with a bang. Now why am I not surprised? Not prepared to back up your statements, are you? If your concern is a pdf file, that won’t be a problem. Just send it to me an I’ll convert it to a doc. or a jpeg. file and post it for you. You have my e-mail address.