Millions affected by top court’s new decision
IT’S not often you read judgments that you know could change literally millions of lives. Yet this month the courts delivered not one, but two, such decisions. As the driving force in one of the cases, Bridgman Sojane of the platinum-rich Pilanesburg area in North...
Gay rights in the church: what will SA’s highest court say?
An issue of ‘burning importance’ to the churches and faith-based communities of South Africa comes to the Constitutional Court later this month. Most people would say the outcome is a foregone conclusion. They may well be right. The case is brought by Ecclesia de...
Give back that domain name, orders court
“GIVE the domain name back!” That’s the order of the high court to an estate agent who was holding onto the address of an upmarket residential development in order to boost his sales. The case, brought by Fairhaven Country Estate Pty Ltd, was heard by Judge Robert...
City “unable” to pay R775 debt: sheriff to sell filing cabinets
WHEN the high court awarded street trader John Mpini Makwicana damages of R775 plus costs and interest against one of South Africa’s biggest municipalities it seemed like a done deal: he would immediately be recompensed for the losses the municipality had caused him....
New anti-tourism immigration regulations: officials in confused legal muddle-up
Regulations “a mess” – top child law experts Government attempts to justify onerous new visa regulations for tourists entering to South Africa as well as local parents with children leaving the country have been trashed by a specialist legal agency working on the...
Prison warden hero in “worst case since democracy”
* This is the first of a new series of columns called A Matter of Justice, written for LegalBriefs, a South African daily online legal interest newspaper WHEN a judge, writing in July 2015, says the treatment of an individual in a case he’s been hearing is one of the...
Charge the government, high court suggests to prosecutor bosses
When the South African government facilitated the departure of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir last week it did so in flagrant defiance of a high court order that he not be allowed to leave the country. It’s no exaggeration to say this has all the makings of a...
Will someone report high court judge in adultery case to the Judicial Service Commission?
* This column appeared on Thursday 25 June in the morning titles of the Independent group of newspaper, where I have been writing a regular feature for the last six years. IN the middle of November 2009 I wrote my first column for this page. It was written from a car,...
Constitutional Court: no more legal consequences for adultery
IT’S finally official: adultery is no longer part of South African law and a “wronged spouse” may no longer sue for damages. A unanimous decision by the judges of the Constitutional Court delivered today says that marriage is based on the concept of two willing...
Off with their lights!
ESKOM has been given court approval to cut power to a defaulting municipality that owes at least R275 million in overdue electricity bills. In an urgent application the Ngwathe Local Municipality, including the Free State towns of Parys, Edenvale, Heilbron, Koppies...