Appeal against Sanral secrecy order
RIGHT from the start it was clear the five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal were unhappy with the judgment before them. Hardly five minutes into arguments on Wednesday this week they commented: “One doesn’t like to be critical of sitting judges, but during the...
Woman, 80, “claimed she was raped all night” by neighbour: appeal court says it’s “one rape”
PROSECUTOR Jerry Noge smiles from the pages of Khasho, journal of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority. It’s September 2012 and he has reason to be pleased: he has just won a convincing victory in a terrible rape case. He tells how Mongezi Motshesane, 38,...
Probed for corruption? – challenge the law’s validity
LESOTHO’S dogged determination to root out corruption has impressed many people over the years. It was shown most spectacularly a decade ago with a series of successful bribery charges against high-profile international construction companies working on the gigantic...
Free State taxidermist sued over Himalayan bear
THE bear is depressed. He spends his day lying on the ground of his cage. He is nine years old and could easily live to over 50. His mother a distant memory, he has never seen another bear. This is Oscar. Rather like the whale, his body is covered with thick layers of...
Judge overturns customary law on unmarried fathers’ rights
HOW should a judge respond when discriminatory aspects of customary law conflict with the constitution? Earlier this month Judge Oagile Dingake of the high court in Gaberone, Botswana, declared his country’s adoption laws unconstitutional for just this reason, in a...
‘Lying’ official must pay damages for sandals she confiscated from street trader
IT could be one of the smallest damages awards made by a high court in recent times, but the R775 plus interest ordered by Judge Dhaya Pillay represents an enormous victory for street traders everywhere in South Africa. Pillay, sitting in the high court in Durban,...
Legal first as top municipal official gets jail time for ignoring high court Eskom order
IN a landmark judgment throwing down the gauntlet to government departments that refuse to obey court orders, the high court has found a municipal manager guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in jail. The judgment (Matjhabeng local municipality...
Springbok v Buffalo in landmark conservation case
TAKE a drought, an empty dam and 20 missing buffalo and it promises to be a good legal story. Add former Springbok centre Hennie le Roux into the mix and there’s a ruck in the making. He’s the owner of Crown River Safaris, a private reserve on Medbury Farm outside...
Top court’s rape decision ‘illogical’ says high court
WHEN three judges of a top court interpreted the law so it gives bizarre benefits to an accused in gang rape trials their unreported decision went almost unnoticed. But this week saw a full court of the high court in Grahamstown applying the law as expounded by the...
City in the dwang with top court over tender handling
A MAJOR municipality has been warned that if it doesn’t improve the way it deals with tenders the courts may step in and award the tender to the company that should have won if proper procedures had been followed. The Supreme Court of Appeal also warned this week that...