Heard the one about the Nigerian bouncer? …
ALL those jokes about Nigerian drug dealers and shysters? – don’t translate them into an anti-Nigerian workplace or business policy or you could find yourself in big trouble. Nigerian doctor Anderson Anyikwa was barred from an upmarket restaurant during 2010 by a...
A destructive dinosaur: law that allows spouses to sue for adultery
SEX and the law aren’t easy companions – I almost said ‘bedfellows’. Our highest courts have often spoken about the private nature of sex and how prying infringes human dignity. But what do you do when someone forces the law itself to pry? That’s the situation in...
Last Tango for these brothers
BROTHERLY back-stabbing has an ancient history. But it’s also right up to date. Just ask Port Elizabeth doctor, Bongani Nqini. Maybe he has a thing about banks, maybe he just likes ready cash, but during November last year, Dr Nqini had about R1-million in cash, with...
SpyTapes: Court slams NDPP, chides Zuma’s legal team
FIVE judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal have laid it on the line: the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions has behaved in the SpyTapes fiasco in a manner that is not worthy of the office. The court added, “Such conduct undermines the esteem in which the...
Officials let Smithfield down
NO-ONE at the Platteland Preview festival in Smithfield this year will easily forget the opening night. Church bells ringing across the veld, marimba players regaling us with great jazz outside a fabulous venue, new and old friends, good food and drink. And then the...
Police abduction from Lesotho – a novel idea?
AT least some of the novels I haven’t yet written are set in the border areas between the Free State and Lesotho. One shouldn’t give away too much of a pending plot, but there’s plenty of scope round here for illicit diamond dealing, gun running and other kinds of...
‘Unhappy Amhappy’ mystery-drama: did bank official ‘mislead’ client?
ALL roads lead to the Eastern Cape right now, and to celebrations of the National Arts Festival’s 40th anniversary. It’s even the setting for this week’s legal decision, with the drama’s central moment played out against the backdrop of that favourite student watering...
Artists at Smithfield’s festival have their say on hot political issues
WHEN Smithfield’s new arts festival, the Platteland Preview, ran into trouble last year, someone asked if I’d been in touch with Ismail Mahomed. As a law writer, I could only assume she meant the late Chief Justice and I wondered at her faith that he could organise...
‘Vulnerable children’ need protection from negligent state officials
NATIONAL child protection week and I’m pointing fingers. Everywhere government exhorts: protect vulnerable children. So where were the state’s justice officials when Annah Ouma Mthimunye tried to get the maintenance she was owed so she could care for and protect her...
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng: why religion should play a greater role in the law
Here is the full text of the speech by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, given at the University of Stellenbosch conference on law and religion in Africa, 27 May 2014: Mogoeng CJ Law and Religion in Africa