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Right to lawyer must 'not be lightly dispensed with', court finds as rehab committal order set aside

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Cape Town Magistrate's Court (Jenni Evans/News24)
Cape Town Magistrate's Court (Jenni Evans/News24)

A Cape Town woman's successful court bid to have her husband involuntarily sent to a drug rehabilitation facility has been set aside in the Western Cape High Court because he did not have a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

According to the judgment, which Judge James Lekhuleni handed down on Monday, the woman applied to the magistrate's court to have her husband, who is also unemployed, committed for six months so that he would stop using dagga and receive treatment for excessive sleeping, a short temper, and an inability to work or do household tasks.

His wife applied for the order because the qualified engineer of above-average intelligence smoked dagga all day, was depressed and had psychotic outbursts, it emerged in the judgment.

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