Editorial: Women’s month in the courts
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’...
Unilateral salary hike by Uganda’s MPs ‘unconstitutional’ – top court
Uganda’s highest court says MPs have been acting unconstitutionally when they have given themselves salary hikes. Instead, the government is supposed to introduce proposals for increases, as the costs of the increases are charges on the country's Consolidated Fund....
Planned changes to Zambia’s constitution ‘infringe judicial independence’
Zambia’s ruling Patriotic Front government is in the process of piloting wide-ranging changes to the country’s constitution into law. The proposed amendments have drawn considerable criticism from political opponents of the PF on grounds of poor drafting, infringement...
RIP Seychelles Justice Prithviraj Fekna
Justice Prithviraj Fekna, who served on the Seychelles Court of Appeal, died unexpected this week. He had been sworn into office as a non-resident member of the appeal court on 27 June this year. Previously he had been a member of the Supreme Court of Mauritius....
As common as contempt?
Successful contempt orders seem to be less rare than they once were, if two recent judgments are anything to go by. Just as courts are handing down more decisions finding public servants personally liable for part of the legal costs, so too, successful contempt orders...
Conflicting deadlines over school promotion disputes
Initially I was confused: how could SA’s highest labour court decide that subordinate agreements trumped the crucial Labour Relations Act (LRA)? Read the judgment The man who tested this issue, Leon Appels, is a teacher in Klerksdorp. During 2016 he applied for the...
Top Malawi officials face jail after contempt finding
Two top government officials are due to be sentenced for disobeying an order of Malawi’s Supreme Court. They had been told by the highest court to apologise to the nation for their role in the ‘Tractorgate’ scandal that has gripped the country – but they failed to do...
Who won this battle of judge vs judges in Seychelles?
For the last four years, the Seychelles judiciary has suffered division and disruption over the behaviour of a senior member of the bench, Durai Karunakaran. Recommended for dismissal by a tribunal that inquired into his behaviour, he resigned in March 2019,...
10 army officers to keep their seats in Uganda’s parliament – judges
Over the last few months Uganda’s courts have delivered a series of decisions that extended democratic practices. Judges have declared restrictive legislation unconstitutional and ordered compensation for a detainee killed by police. No wonder some observers hoped...
Creating safe courts – SA Minister
The safety of judicial officers and others using the courts had become a matter of serious concern to the SA government, according to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola. Speaking at the AGM of the Judicial Officers Association of South...