“We don’t need to sit in judgment over pots, chickens and turkeys” – judge
Maware v Chiware The couple in this case were separating after 31 years in an unregistered customary law union, and could not agree how to divide their assets. At a pre-trial conference, Judge Garainesu Mawadze of the high court in Harare, Zimbabwe, helped the...
Don’t use “constitution” as a “mantra”, warns Malawi’s Supreme Court
Malawi’s former agriculture minister, George Chaponda, was a key figure in that country’s “Maizegate” scandal around the importation of maize from Zambia to replenish stocks that had allegedly fallen low. Public criticism of apparent corruption led to a presidential...
What is the “canteen factor”? – Uganda’s Commercial Court explains
When a hacker found and used the password of bank employee Shakil Pathan Ismail he was short-paid for a year while police investigated. Then the bank went under and the financial institution that took over its assets and liabilities ended the staffer’s employment...
India wins contest for longest judicial sentence!
I know when I am beaten! A few days ago I posted what at least one person took as a real challenge: here was a lengthy sentence from a recent decision of the Supreme Court in Ghana, I said; could anyone best 144 words for a single sentence? Turns out that someone...
Longest judicial sentence of the year so far …
Mensah v Komfo This week’s award for the longest sentence in any judgment I have read so far in 2019, goes to the Supreme Court of Ghana, in the civil case of Mensah vs Komfo. The sentence which, read carefully, makes perfect sense, consists of no fewer than 144...
Union psychosis
The Eastern Cape's impotence in the face of "brutal" and "thuggish" union disruption at Fort England psychiatric hospital highlights a possible fatal flaw in the NHI plan. Read judgment Concern about the viability of a national health insurance (NHI) plan often...
Judges on warpath against drug scourge
Two new decisions from the High Court in Namibia show judges on the warpath against drugs and drug dealing. The distinctly tougher line follows a watershed judgment late last year (2018). As I wrote at the time, through that strongly-worded landmark decision the...
Suspects 1, Sisyphus 0
Winning the battle against corruption will be near impossible unless the staffing crisis in the prosecuting authority is urgently addressed. Read judgment A new decision on a corruption trial that almost collapsed illustrates the enormity of the task waiting for the...
Christmas is coming, so we’re putting you in jail – Zim court
In the midst of bad stories about the quality of justice being experienced in Zimbabwe’s courts comes a high court judgment that sees the accused as an individual – and that sets aside his trial sentence in the lower court as a shocking expression of the magistrate’s...
Justice & “morality” lose in this case. Even the judge thinks so
Unfairly dismissed workers have been denied their back pay, despite the highest court in SA ratifying the order that it should be paid. And all because they subsequently followed the wrong legal process in taking their former employer to task Read judgment EVEN the...