Legal Articles and Guides

Foreign-trained medical doctors battling for internship placements are heading to court, claiming they are being sidelined, notes a Times Select report. The Health Department, however, denies there are students who have not been placed. The Legal Resources Centre’s (LRC) Durban regional office has represented more than 200 doctors so far, and it is heading to court again this year.

An unrepresented Durban dad has secured a landmark ruling that offers protection to pupils at private schools who haven't paid their school fees, according to a News24 report. In terms of the order, private schools can no longer stop pupils from writing their exams if they haven't paid their school fees, without first following ‘fair procedure’ and taking into account the rights of children.

Axed SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane is heading back to the Constitutional Court in a bid to appeal the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) dismissal of his application to overturn his sacking. His lawyer Eric Mabuza reportedly told Fin24 yesterday the matter had gone ‘way beyond’ requesting leave to appeal from Judge Hans Fabricius, who delivered the scathing ruling, or the SCA.

A father has won the right for his five-year-old son to carry his name, an action which sets a legal precedent. Family law experts said the ruling – by Judge Jacqui Henriques in the KZN High Court (Durban) – was a step forward in broadening the rights of unmarried fathers, notes a Sunday Times report.

The Department of Justice says the law will need to be changed if public displays of the old SA flag, which it says is widely recognised as a symbol that promotes white racial supremacy, are to be classified as hate speech. According to a Times Select report, specialist state law adviser Theresa Molomoitime Ross – on behalf of the Justice Department – filed an affidavit last week in response to the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Equality Court bid to ban ‘gratuitous’ public displays of the flag on the basis that such displays amount to hate speech.

Borrowers with more than one debt outstanding were given some protection last week when the SCA ruled that the interest rate on short-term loans after the first loan cannot exceed 3% a month. GroundUp reports Micro Finance SA (MFSA) had challenged regulations promulgated under the National Credit Act reducing the interest rate on a second short-term loan taken out in a 12-month period from 5% to 3% a month.

Two more Jehovah's Witness families have been taken to the KZN High Court (Durban) to force them to allow doctors to administer lifesaving blood to their seriously ill children. The two matters were added to the court's roll as a third set of parents planned to defend their refusal to allow their five-year-old son, who suffers from sickle cell anaemia, to receive blood transfusions, notes TimesLIVE.

An order of the Western Cape High Court brought protest action by Reclaim the City (RTC) on Site B in the Cape Town inner city to an abrupt end this week. According to a News24 report, as the housing activists were settling in for their first night in shacks they had erected that morning, police officers arrived and read the interdict out loud.

Jacob Zuma's son, Edward, has failed to pay R12 500 as settlement for his hate speech comments, reports TimesLIVE. Yesterday, the SA Human Rights Commission went to court to secure a warrant of arrest for Zuma. The Durban Equality Court heard that Zuma was disrespectful and disregarded the court order by failing to pay the money to Ohlange High School in Inanda.

The owner of the guest lodge who was found guilty of racism and hate speech remains defiant and has vowed to take his fight all the way to the Constitutional Court following a scathing judgment that described him as a racist. The Mercury reports André Slade – the former owner of the Sodwana Bay Guest house – said he was the victim of hate speech and racism after he was labelled a racist by the MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Sihle Zikalala.

Possession of an unlicensed firearm is, for good reason, a serious offence carrying heavy penalties, and law abiding citizens will support the police in their efforts to rid our country of illegally-held firearms. It’s a major problem, with media reports suggesting that only 3m out of a total of 5.3m guns are registered and legally owned. That’s 2.3m illegal firearms out there!

‘Physical punishment in the home is an antiquated form of discipline, which stems from a time when we did not know about child development and child psychology. But we know better now. Research shows that physical punishment does not teach children better behaviour. It may achieve short-term compliance but does not lead to insight and long-term changes in behaviour, which is what parents usually want to achieve when disciplining children.’

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s Ingonyama Trust was on the receiving end of a decision by the Land Claims Court, when it ruled his ‘subjects’ were entitled to hold land in their names if they so wish. According to Rapport, the Ingonyama Trust intervened in a successful land claim by Zulu communities over 11 000ha of land adjacent to the trust land.

Mitchells Plain residents who have been fighting a social housing company in order to keep the roofs over their heads have come out victorious in the Constitutional Court, says a Cape Times report. The court unanimously found that the Cape Town Community Housing Company's (CTCHC) cancelling of instalment sale agreements of 12 Wood Ridge residents to be unlawful.

Fresnaye businessman Allan Tavakoli has lost his legal challenge to block the construction of the newest ultra-luxury development along the Atlantic Seaboard. A Cape Times report says the SCA has dismissed Tavakoli’s appeal against the building plans of a R1bn apartment complex called Bantry Hills.