Legal Articles and Guides

Axed Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo says there is no punishment befitting Old Mutual directors other than six months' jail time, without the option of a fine, on the contempt of court charges he lodged against them for disregarding a ruling that he be reinstated.

The government has still not released funds to support the Job Creation Trust, which was set up by the country’s big trade union federations more than two decades ago.

The legal team of the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has slammed ‘defamatory’ allegations made by Dr Iqbal Survé, chair of Independent Media and head of investment firm Sekunjalo, in the wake of a dramatic raid of his office in Cape Town this week.

Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane intends to tackle head-on those who want her removed as Public Protector. This comes as Parliament has discussed and initiated proceedings aimed at removing her from office as well as re-evaluating section 194 of the Constitution which deals with the removal of the heads of Chapter Nine institutions, says a report in The Mercury.

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has cleared former Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on the narrow matter of deliberately misleading Parliament over the social grants debacle, reports Legalbrief.

The Association of Mining and Construction Union (Amcu) has brought a R7.5bn corruption case against SA mining giant Samancor Chrome.

The latest chapter in Moneyweb’s long-running ‘follow-the-money investigation’ into the Picvest saga is published in detail on the website today, notes Legalbrief. It focuses on the sale of 31 Orthotouch properties to the Accelerate Property Fund in 2013, which it says marked the crescendo of the fire-sale of properties in the aftermath of the collapse of the Highveld Syndication (HS) schemes.

Stellenbosch University’s Law Clinic is to launch a class action suit against Lifestyle Direct Group International, its affiliate websites – including Loan Locator, Loan Choice, Loan Picker and Loan Quest – and its collection firm, Lifestyle Legal, on behalf of the thousands of SA loan seekers who were allegedly duped by those sites.

Government owes construction and building industry contractors about R5.5bn and recent business failures and job losses in the sector have been blamed on the non-payment or late payment of contractors, says a Moneyweb report.

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has launched a fightback against one of her detractors’ most powerful pieces of ammunition against her – the scathing High Court ruling that found she had ‘failed the people of this country’ by turning a blind eye to irregularities in the Gupta-linked Estina dairy farm scam.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has ordered the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) to pay Murendi Properties and Building Suppliers, a company in its black industrialists programme, a R14.2m grant that the DTI awarded to the company, says a Mail & Guardian report.

Major elements of state capture are set to be tested in court against one of its alleged architects. An amaBhungane report says the Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund (TSDBF) has thrown the state capture book at Eric Wood.

The silicosis class action – which the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) recently approved of as ‘reasonable, adequate and fair’ (see Ex Parte Nkala and Others) – has consistently been referred to as a ‘compromise’.

The final two directors of VBS Mutual Bank have been finally sequestrated, Netwerk24 reports. Liquidator Anoosh Rooplal announced that the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) dismissed the challenges of former operations head Robert Madzonga, former chief executive Andile Ramavhunga, and his wife Zanele, to their provisional sequestrations.

The SABC’s board of directors could be declared delinquent as the embattled public broadcaster is trading under insolvent circumstances. Its falling revenues mean it cannot service its debt of almost R2bn.