[7]Mr Gory applies to this Court in terms of section 172(2)(d) of the Constitution for confirmation of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of the High Court order and a costs order against the Minister. Neither Mr Kolver nor the Minister opposes the application for confirmation. Mr Kolver has, however, brought an application for leave to appeal against paragraphs 9, 10 and 11 of the High Court order. The application was heard simultaneously with the application for confirmation. The Minister appeared before this Court only to oppose Mr Gory’s prayer for a costs order against her.
[8] There is also an application to intervene in the matter by Ms Erilda Starke and her three sisters. Their late brother, Mr William Starke, was at the time of his death allegedly a partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership with Mr Bobby Lee Bell. Mr Starke died intestate on 21 November 2005 and his sisters nominated an attorney, Mr Myer Mervyn Smith, to be appointed by the Master of the Cape High Court as the executor of their brother’s estate. There is a dispute between the four sisters and Mr Smith, on the one hand, and Mr Bell, on the other, concerning Mr Bell’s claim against Mr Starke’s intestate estate. The applicants for intervention (the Starke sisters) deny that the relationship between their late brother and Mr Bell was a permanent life partnership and also deny that their brother and Mr Bell were “totally dependent on each other for reciprocal support in every sense of the word”, as alleged by Mr Bell. This factual dispute will obviously have to be addressed in proceedings before the relevant High Court, should Mr Gory’s application for confirmation be successful.
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