Every year, August is marked as Women’s Month in South Africa. It grew out of the yearly August 9 national holiday. On that day in 1956, some 20 000 women joined in a protest march to the capital, Pretoria. They were petitioning against the apartheid era ‘pass laws’ that forced black people to carry a document allowing them to ‘pass’ into a ‘white area’. Now that day has grown into something much bigger with the whole month set aside to mark, celebrate, protest or inform about issues related to women.

The all-women production team of Jifa’s weekly newsletter will mark this special month by highlighting what we consider a relevant judgment from an African jurisdiction each week in August. We will choose a decision because in our view it shows the judge engaging with issues that affect women in a way that highlights a problem or celebrates an achievement.

If you know of any judgment that would fit this bill, and that was delivered in the last few months, why don’t you email it to us, explaining very briefly why you feel the judgment should be highlighted. We might well use it in the newsletter! Send your motivation and the judgment itself to: Jifa@uct.ac.za

  • Newsletter, Judicial Institute for Africa (Jifa), 8 August 2019