An elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Viviers, were subjected to repeated instances of nuisance from their neighbours, Abel and Liesl Prinsloo. After trying in vain to persuade their neighbours to act in a civil way towards them and after turning to the police (who told them that the prosecutor refused to press charges), the Viviers approached the Pretoria High Court for relief.

They claimed that the children made a nuisance of themselves and on one Sunday afternoon visited them 16 times to retrieve the ball they were playing with from their yard. The elderly couple said the children often rang the doorbell as a joke and they were forced to dismantle it. In addition, Prinsloo ran a tow-in business from his house with the two-way radio blaring away “at full blast” day and night.

Accordingly, in 2008 the Court granted an order against the Prinsloos, interdicting them from swearing at, screaming at, insulting, intimidating or harassing their neighbours or their family and visitors. It also forbade them from entering or damaging the neighbours’ property and being a nuisance.

Despite this order, over the next 2 years on no fewer than 18 occasions the Prinsloos and their children continued to make their neighbour’s life a nightmare.

So the couple had no choice but to go back to court, complaining that the Prinsloos were “spinning” their car wheels on their gravel driveway when they saw the pensioners in their yard and the children constantly kicked their ball against the electric fence. Other complaints include that Prinsloo had the habit of “racing” his tow-truck into and out of his yard with “high revs”.

In September 2010, the Pretoria High Court sentenced the Prinsloos to 30 days in prison, suspended for three years, after they disregarded the court order.