Legal Articles and Guides

A recent Labour Appeal Court ruling amounts to a stark warning to employers to be more tolerant of their employees’ religious beliefs. The court ruled in favour of Deidre Beverley Faris, who took her employer, TDF Network Africa, to court over what she deemed was an unfair dismissal over her unavailability to work over the Sabbath.

The SCA has set aside former President Jacob Zuma’s decision to install Toni Mphephu Ramabulana as king of Vhavenda, ruling on Friday that his appointment was illegal and unconstitutional, notes a report in The Citizen.

Author Pieter-Louis Myburgh has condemned the V&A Waterfront for failing to 'defend free speech' when it cancelled the launch of his book Gangster State, about ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, over safety concerns. V&A spokesperson Donald Kau said the decision to cancel the launch had been made in consultation with the police.

The most common response of cities and of their metropolitan police forces is to treat homeless people – and others who ply their trade or live on the streets – as criminals. A fundamental shift in policy and law is needed to ensure cities extend these rights to all who live in them.

Land occupiers from Tswelopele Extension 8 in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, are applying for an interdict in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to prevent the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) from evicting them, according to a GroundUp report.

In a huge victory for homeless people and which serves as a warning to municipalities, the SCA has found that the City of Johannesburg Metro Police acted disrespectfully and in a demeaning manner towards a homeless group when they simply destroyed their belongings.

The Equality Court sitting at the Western Cape High Court has ordered the Department of Home Affairs to apologise to a blind woman for refusing to allow her access with her guide dog, Reo, at their Mossel Bay branch. A Times Select report says Judge Vincent Saldanha found the Home Affairs officials had unfairly discriminated against Amanda Bester.

Eight years of damning judgments about its treatment of immigrants have failed to make the Home Affairs Department mend its ways, the acting President of the SCA said on Friday in dismissing the department's latest attempt to defend its shortcomings.

Private gated estates are entitled to draw up their own rules, including setting speed limits on internal roads and imposing ‘fines’ for exceeding them, the SCA ruled yesterday, according to a TimesLIVE report.

The lights in Makhanda will stay on for now after Eskom and Makhanda residents and businesses put together a High Court-sanctioned plan to force Makana municipality to pay its massive and overdue debt to the power utility. A Daily Dispatch report notes the Grahamstown Residents’ Association, Grahamstown Business Forum and individual businesses resorted to court for an urgent interdict to stop Eskom from implementing its threat to switch off the bulk electricity supply to Makana municipality which owes it more than R80m.

The Sustainable Warrant operation, launched in February 2019, has caught the attention of motorists with an increase in the number of people owning up to outstanding warrants of arrest for unpaid traffic-related debt. According to a report on the IoL site, the City of Cape Town’s Traffic Service served just under 10 000 warrants during the first four weeks of its Sustainable Warrant operation, which has now become a permanent feature of the department’s operations.

Disputes with neighbours take many forms, and they can quickly escalate into costly and expensive litigation. So nipping them in the bud will always be first prize, and when it comes to fights over construction activity – whether it be a whole new building or additions/alterations – a good place to start is with municipal approval of building plans. Without such approval, construction cannot as a general rule proceed.

The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) says it is suspending the process of pursuing e-toll debt. According to News24, it says that ‘given the initiative led by President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the e-tolls payment impasse, Sanral will, with immediate effect, suspend the process of pursuing e-toll debt. This includes historic debt and summonses applied for from 2015. No new summonses will be applied for’.

It appears the magistrate overseeing the extradition of a suspected British paedophile underestimated the complexity of the matter, as she’s asked for further argument from both the state and defence – and more time to deliver a judgment.

The City of Cape Town is waiting for the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to determine a date to rule on whether independent power producers (IPPs) can supply the city with electricity. A Cape Times report says the city has taken Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and the energy regulator to the High Court to challenge the status quo that allows municipalities to purchase from IPPs only if they have ministerial approval.