Articles

… for ignoring court order PERHAPS it’s because I live in the quiet platteland myself that I was so interested to read last week’s decision in the case of Bickel v Brown, a dispute between the owners of two neighbouring properties in Gonubie, outside East London. The...

I fridge motor churns – beyond the kitchen door silent veld waits II Gate flung open. Temptation. Irresistible. I open my arms and run through. III Artemis! Artemisia! My hunting dogs still seek you by your moon. IV Like the garden my writing grows. I feed the soil...

GOOD bedtime reading for insomniacs but the rest of us would first have to grab a strong cup of coffee. I’m talking about the Constitutional Court’s judgment in the Maccsand case that will be remembered for two reasons: for the important question it answered, and for...

MOST people know that a lawyer who is guilty of misconduct may be struck from the roll and prevented from ever acting as an advocate or attorney again. But supposing the person involved never was a proper member of the profession in the first place – what happens...

– That’s the question raised by the Constitutional Court’s judgment in the Hlophe matter IN the upheaval over government’s peculiar plans for the judiciary and the justice system, not to mention its new obsession for creating a compulsory national culture of keeping...

– to judgment on senior counsel status THE General Council of the Bar and the Johannesburg society of advocates are likely to challenge the high court ruling declaring that the South Africa President has no power to confer senior counsel status on members of the bar....

– for “don’t ask; don’t tell” – judge slams ‘arrogant’ disregard for public right to information Dlusha v King Sabatha Dalindye IT’S not only the central government that finds itself under pressure from the courts. Provincial and local governments are also being told...

– about foreigners seeking asylum: appeal court not impressed IT’S not every day that you read an appeal decision commenting on the way a trial court handled a matter using words like these: ‘It is a matter of grave concern when fundamental rules of litigation are so...

why it’s not ok that the media was barred AN historic event: the first sitting in the Supreme Court of Appeal’s brand new main court attended by the lords and ladies of the law not to mention South Africa’s leading justice officials. So what was I doing in a marquee...

RAPISTS acquitted because of some technical glitsch in court. Sexual predators who will spend far less time than they should in jail because the judge or magistrate felt an incomprehensible sympathy with the perpetrator. We hear about cases like this week after week...