New government regulations allow mourners to cross provincial borders for funerals – but only under strict conditions
Strict Government COVID-19 regulations have been slightly relaxed to allow bereaved family members to cross provincial boundaries if this is necessary to attend a funeral. The new regulations, contained in today’s official Government Gazette, are clearly a response to...
Human rights fightback as security forces take abusive action under cover of COVID-19 regulations
As the security forces of some African countries take abusive action against people under cover of COVID-19 lockdown regulations, human rights groups have begun to fight back. Prompted by complaints of serious constitutional rights' violations – beatings, torture and...
No protection in Zim for pangolin, alleged trigger of world’s coronavirus pandemic
Scientists increasingly believe that pangolin meat might have been part of the trigger for the deadly coronavirus. In this case the pangolin would have been bought in a typical Chinese market where illegally obtained wildlife has been an everyday element. But though...
Repressive policing law: scathing judgment by Uganda’s constitutional court
One of Uganda’s most contentious laws has come under fire by that country’s constitutional court. A particularly repressive section giving the police power to prohibit all public gatherings and protest has been declared unconstitutional and the court’s majority took...
Sentencing pregnant women in Malawi – judge lays down the law
The case of a heavily pregnant woman accused of stealing from other women at a shopping centre has given one of Malawi’s judges the chance to re-state the law on sentencing first offenders and those who are pregnant. The judge quoted international law on the subject,...
Thumbs down from Constitutional Court for COVID-19 lockdown challenge
No surprises here: the constitutional court, South Africa’s highest judicial forum, has refused an urgent application for direct access from a group that wanted to argue that the COVID-19 lockdown was unlawful. It claimed the virus would not seriously affect SA...
‘No disaster; no grounds for lockdown’ – bizarre new case launched at Constitutional Court
The Hola Bon Renaissance Foundation has launched an application to the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial forum in South Africa. It is asking for direct access to the court so that it may argue that the current lockdown is unconstitutional and unlawful. The...
‘Tragic’ coronavirus case: court says it cannot allow man to attend grandfather’s funeral
A man whose grandfather was burnt to death in a fire on Friday has been refused permission to travel from his home in Mpumalanga to attend the funeral in the Eastern Cape. The man, Karel van Heerden, brought an urgent application in the high court’s Mpumalanga...
Ten additional Western Cape judges refuse to sit with colleague citing ‘unbecoming behaviour’
The scandal around judges of the Western Cape is developing with astonishing speed. Following a dispute between the judge president, John Hlophe, and his deputy, Patricia Goliath, over the latter's claims relating to the JP's alleged inappropriate, even racist,...
Sensational start to 2020 legal year
Few South African courts have yet issued judgments this year, but the legal world is far from bored. A sensational affidavit, sworn by the deputy judge president of the high court in Cape Town, Patricia Goliath, has thrown open the tensions among judges of the Western...