Legal Articles and Guides

An order by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has put on hold the City of Tshwane’s efforts to cancel a contract to fix the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant, which is at the heart of the Hammanskraal water crisis, notes a Mail & Guardian report.

The appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting as a transactional adviser to Wonderboom Airport by the City of Tshwane, has been suspended.

Whether a court could decide Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fate or whether that is the exclusive role of Parliament was at issue yesterday when the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) heard an application by anti-corruption pressure group Accountability Now for an order declaring the Public Protector no longer fit and proper to hold office.

The Buffalo City Metro has roped in a law firm in a bid to convince the Eastern Cape High Court (East London) not to make permanent an interim order interdicting the city and the National Treasury from allocating R50m to its 50 wards.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has ruled in favour of the DA in its bid to hold on to the Tshwane municipality.

The provincial and the national geographic names councils – and Art & Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa – had so badly bungled the process leading to Mthethwa’s decision to change the name of Grahamstown to Makhanda that his decision to do so should be set aside, it was argued in the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) yesterday.

Former prosecutions boss Nomgcobo Jiba has lost the first round of her court battle to be reinstated to her position pending the parliamentary process that will either confirm or overturn her removal, says a Business Day report.

Motorcyclists are angered over a City of Cape Town’s traffic by-law amendment they say will outlaw lane sharing with cars or riding between cars (lane-splitting).

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu yesterday said more than R1.6bn of the R2bn invested by municipalities into VBS Mutual Bank cannot be recovered. Makwetu, reporting on the audit outcomes of municipalities for the 2017/2018 financial year, described the non-recovery of public funds invested in VBS as a classic example of the 'impact of deteriorating accountability' in municipalities.

The City of Cape Town has welcomed the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) setting a date to hear its petition to buy electricity directly from independent power producers (IPPs). The city wants the Energy Minister and the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) to allow it to purchase power from IPPs.

A precedent has been confirmed in the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality v Asla Construction (Pty) Ltd that may allow government entities to appeal their own decisions – where there is evidence that those past decisions were unlawful – potentially even after several years have passed, and even if their reasons for appealing are possibly questionable.

The controversial decision to grant environmental authorisation for the Watson family's massive wind farm project on the summit of the Groot Winterhoek mountains near Uitenhage has been overturned, at least temporarily.

Umgeni Water broke National Treasury’s rules and awarded a R220m security tender to an ANC-linked company whose taxes were not in order at the time, says a City Press report. In December, Umgeni Water awarded the three-year tender to guard the water utility’s assets to Reshebile Aviation and Protection Services, which at the time owed SARS both payroll tax and VAT. Treasury forbids the awarding of tenders to companies which are not tax compliant.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has lost a Constitutional Court challenge in a case in which it argued that it was within its rights to renege on a R33m tender agreement. A Cape Times report says the RTMC had in 2009 entered into a service level agreement with Waymark Infotech (Pty) Ltd to develop and install an Enterprise Resource Planning system.

Msunduzi Municipality is under no legal obligation to continue using its security company Khuselani Security and Risk Management (KSA). The Witness report says this follows a ruling by Judge Piet Bezuidenhout of the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg).