|
Snake has court in uproar
03/12/2004 10:32 - (SA)
Sonja Carstens , Beeld
Pretoria - A magistrate at the Pretoria north court had a huge fright when he nearly stepped on a court official's "stolen snake" in his new office.
Magistrate Megan Naidoo thought his eyes were deceiving him at first. He closed the door and called his colleague, magistrate Samson Maseko, to open the door with him the second time around.
"It was a terrible shock for me. I could not believe there was a snake in the office in which I had been sitting for nearly a week. An office is not the place for a snake. It cannot be tolerated," Naidoo said on Thursday.
The corn snake, called Mr K, belonged to Juanita Jensen, head of the maintenance section, who worked from this office before she went on sick leave. Jensen initially suspected that Mr K was stolen from her office about six weeks ago. She found an empty cage in her office when she went there to feed the snake its weekly mouse.
Jensen then bought another corn snake, Cinderella, and put it in the cage to frighten off thieves. Her office had repeatedly been burgled in the past.
Cinderella caused quite a fuss when the department of justice threatened Jensen with disciplinary action last month if she did not immediately remove her "pet" from the court building.
Jensen said Mr K was in her office since May this year and nobody complained about it.
However, the department claimed the court building was a public place and that the rules did not allow for keeping a snake.
Jensen said she was then asked to vacate her office to make room for Naidoo. She went on sick leave in January after a neck operation.
Naidoo said he phoned Suzette van der Walt, chief magistrate, about the snake. Van der Walt asked magistrate Kobus Pretorius, senior magistrate and head of the civil section, to remove the snake. Pretorius picked up Mr K and phoned Jensen.
"I had him at the pet shop. He is somewhat dehydrated, but otherwise he is well. Mr K and Cinderella are now safely at home," Jensen said.
|
News
