Generous to a fault
The labour court in SA has upheld the dismissal of a pharmacist who gave exorbitant discounts, over-ruling a curious ruling in his favour by the CCMA Read the judgment A RECENT decision by SA's labour court has left me wondering how some pharmacies stay solvent given...
Alarming number of trial errors nullify serious convictions in Tanzania
WHEN half of the criminal appeals heard by a country’s apex court lead to decisions that the trials were a nullity or fatally defective in some way and that conviction and sentence must be set aside, you know there is a problem. This is the situation in Tanzania where...
Give senior lawyer his current tax compliance certificate, high court orders
A PROMINENT senior lawyer in Kenya, Professor Tom Odhiambo Ojienda, has persuaded the high court in Nairobi to order that the country’s tax bosses give him a current tax compliance certificate. This despite the Kenya Revenue Authority's earlier refusal to do so. The...
Death penalty overturned for woman who murdered and dismembered husband
The appropriateness of the death penalty as a punishment for even extremely violent murder has been raised at the Supreme Court in Kampala. Members of Uganda’s apex court were considering the case of a 63-year-old woman who murdered and dismembered her husband. Though...
Villagers’ water pollution case should be heard in UK not Zambia, court hears
A major case on the environmental and human rights of villagers in Zambia was heard in the English courts over two days this week. The appeal concerns the question of where villagers, suing over the pollution of their water via mining action, may bring their dispute....
NUM’s wrong turning
NUM's involvement in a health and safety compliance dispute has been found by the SA labour court to be irresponsible and unreasonable. HOW is an employer to respond when workers effectively hold a mine to ransom? In the case of PMG Mining’s Bishop Mine operations...
Long wait in rare death penalty appeal case
After a cattle-rustling raid into Zambia by uniformed Angolan soldiers armed with assault rifles, a local man who was part of the group has been convicted and sentenced to death. It's an unusual case for several reasons. For one, it is rare for such raids to result in...
Local shooting club targets Namibian defence force
In a bizarre case, due to be heard in the Namibian courts next week, the country’s defence force is alleged to have taken over the premises of a private shooting club outside the town of Rehoboth just before Christmas. The club says the army changed the locks and...
Top Kenyan officials must pay Miguna damages personally – court
We start the new year with a sensational turn to the high-profile dispute between government and controversial political figure Miguna Miguna: the Nairobi court in Kenya has ordered that six top government and police officials must together personally pay his legal...
Judges lash magistrate for ‘mind-boggling’ behaviour
A provincial magistrate has come under fire from two judges of the high court in Zimbabwe for “conducting himself as a loose cannon” and for not telling the truth to an accused about what the judges had ordered in their review of the original trial court sentence. ...