Please also note that the author of this document will not be responsible for any plagiarism you
commit.
1. You act for ADB Cables (Pty) Ltd, a supplier of high voltage electricity cables. Brown
Electrical (Pty) Ltd is one of the customers of ADB Cables and the latter on 01 October 2024
supplied cables to Brown Electrical on terms requiring payment to be made within 60 days of
delivery. You are approached by ADB Cables with instructions to recover an amount of R1.2M
which is owed to your client by Brown Cables. You proceed to serve Brown Electrical with a
demand. Upon receipt of the demand, Brown Electrical, through its sole director and
shareholder, Dennis Brown, informs you that Brown Electrical acknowledges its debt to ADB
Cables and subsequently enters into an acknowledgement of debt (AOD). Brown Electrical
subsequently fails to abide by the payment procedure agreed upon in the AOD.
A) Would you advise ADB Cables to make use of the Provisional Sentence Procedure to recover
the amount owing? Provide reason(s) for your answer.
Yes.
Provisional Sentence Procedure and Liquid Documents
The provisional sentence procedure can be used when a plaintiff relies on a liquid document for their
claim. A liquid document is one in which the defendant has admitted or acknowledged their
indebtedness to the plaintiff. Acknowledgments of debt (AOD) are considered liquid documents.
Since Brown Electrical has acknowledged their debt to ADB Cables and has entered into an AOD, it
is advisable for ADB Cables to make use of the Provisional Sentence Procedure. This is because the
AOD is a liquid document, the provisional sentence procedure is designed to enforce a debt based on
a liquid document quickly, and the provisional sentence summons is used when the plaintiff relies on
a liquid document for their claim.
Based on this, the provisional sentence procedure can be used to recover the R1.2M that Brown
Electrical owes to ADB Cables.
Requirements for a Provisional Sentence Summons
The sources also mention that a provisional sentence summons must include a call for immediate
payment, must state the amount owed along with interest and costs, and must specify the grounds for
the claim, which in this case is the AOD. A properly drafted provisional sentence summons based on
the AOD should allow ADB Cables to recover the R1.2M owed by Brown Electrical.