Legal Articles and Guides

A transgender prisoner, being held at the Helderstroom Maximum Correctional Centre in Caledon, has turned to the Equality Court to compel the departments of Justice and Correctional Services to allow her to dress as a woman, even though she is in a male prison.

The Road Traffic Management Corp (RTMC) is pushing for tougher action against those arrested for drunk driving – including making them spend at least seven days in a cell before they can be considered for bail, according to the Sunday Times. In a proposal to the Department of Justice, the RTMC asks that driving under the influence (DUI), speeding and reckless or negligent driving be reclassified in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Home Affairs is facing a legal challenge by the Legal Resource Centre for declaring a visa application by a Zimbabwean child fraudulent and banning him for five years from returning to SA. As a result, Wadzanai Bello has been separated from her 16-year-old son, Tinashe Bello, since March, reports GroundUp. He has missed a year of schooling.

Labour tenants and farm occupiers in the Pietermaritzburg and KZN midlands areas will file a class action suit on Friday in a bid to force local municipalities to provide them with clean water and sanitation services. The farm occupiers and tenants, represented by the Association for Rural Advancement and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), will file papers in the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) against the Mshwathi, Msunduzi and Mgungundlovu municipalities, notes Daily News.

The Southern Synod (church council) of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (Urcsa) will permit gay marriage, after years of deliberation. In a statement the church said: ‘If LGBTQI are considered full members, then they need to enjoy the full rights of membership. In 2016, the General Synod took a process decision and referred the matter to the seven regional synods of the Urcsa.

Residential complexes and estates are becoming more and more popular for the many advantages they provide. Remember however that – in everyone’s interests – they also come with restrictions on your freedom to use and enjoy your property, and that you bind yourself to whatever Conduct Rules apply in your community scheme.

A Muslim family is embroiled in a row with a Johannesburg school for not allowing their Grade 8 son to grow his beard as part of the boy’s Islamic practices, notes a report in The Mercury. The family believes the actions are part of the ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘racist’ practices of denying Muslim pupils their religious rights at prestigious Gauteng schools, and has threatened to take the fight to court.

The government will research the law governing the recognition and dissolution of all religious marriages, as it plans to appeal a Western Cape High Court judgment that ordered the state to recognise Muslim marriages under law. According to a Cape Times report, the Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) had argued that by not recognising Muslim marriages under common law, Muslim women were not afforded legal protection and did not have access to the courts to assert their rights.

Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha is a public figure and he should behave. According to City Press these were the words of Judge Nelisa Mali before dismissing an urgent application by Mathabatha to gag the newspaper on Saturday night. Mali agreed that the matter was urgent, but dismissed the application with costs.

Former prosecutor Gerrie Nel is seeking to bring a private prosecution against a prominent person in the financial sector who allegedly raped his three-year-old granddaughter. Nel is now head of private prosecutions for AfriForum, which yesterday said it has applied for a nolle prosequi certificate from the NPA.

Discovery has moved swiftly to seal the document to contain possible fallout after hundreds of its clients had personal information such as names, ID numbers and contact details disclosed in court papers that have been accessed by third parties. Discovery said yesterday the data was never publicly disclosed and it had taken steps to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act, notes BusinessLIVE.

Discovery Life has disclosed detailed personal information about roughly 1 000 clients in court documents it lodged as part of a Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) application against one of its former brokers, says a Moneyweb report. Devan de Meyer resigned from the firm to join independent broking house MedBond.

Whether or not you personally have ever had (or intend to have) anything to do with cannabis/marijuana/weed/dagga, and whether or not you agree with the recent Constitutional Court ruling in Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others v Prince (Clarke and Others Intervening); National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Rubin; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Acton that partially decriminalises it, the fact remains that the highest court in our land has spoken. All of us should be aware of the implications.

An eviction notice brought before the Constitutional Court last year provides a test case for safeguarding the rights of the vulnerable in society, says Simon Dippenaar, of Simon Dippenaar & Associates, in an analysis on the Fin24 site. In the original case in the High Court, the 184 occupiers were represented in court by four of their peers, who were referred to as the ‘appearer applicants’.

The high cost of trial transcripts, necessary to appeal convictions, made access to justice for poor people difficult, a GroundUp feature article notes. Criminal law expert William Booth says: 'The costs in some of the appeals I have dealt with were between R18 000 to R100 000 to have the record transcribed. These costs need to be borne by the appellant. This means often the appellant cannot carry on with his appeal.'