Legal Articles and Guides

A community on the KZN south coast is taking on the Ingonyama Trust Board over what it says is the illegal sale of its land, according to a Business Day report. Members of the Luthuli clan, who once administered leases in the area through the Umnini Trust, have given the Ingonyama Trust and Inkosi Phathisizwe Luthuli an ultimatum to stop selling their land or they will head to court over the matter.

When we were little we were taught that “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words cannot harm me”.  In reality, words and actions do harm a person, whether directly or indirectly.  I have been reading articles lately and came across many stories where bulling and harassment has been so bad, that victims resort to suicide.  The world is cruel, and if no one makes a stand, nothing will change.

A sizeable contingent of concerned farmers attended the land expropriation public hearings in Mokopane, Limpopo, yesterday when they warned of job losses, food shortages and an economic crash should the Constitution be changed to allow for expropriation without compensation.

Although raising concern about the need to balance the right to freedom of expression with cultural rights and his insistence that the filmmakers’ rights to freedom of expression could not override the rights to dignity of Xhosa people, Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Judge Joseph Raulinga has ruled that the appeal tribunal process for Inxeba (The Wound) was legally flawed, and should be reviewed and set aside.

A woman who dreamed of being a single mother asked her ex-boyfriend to impregnate her – and got more than she bargained for, says a Times Select report. As well as a son (3), KZN High Court (Durban) Judge Piet Koen told her the boy’s father must have extensive co-parenting rights which include custody every alternate weekend and at least four hours of father-son time on birthdays.

One of the apartheid regime’s ‘last and most insidious efforts to curtail freedom of expression and political action’ has been declared unconstitutional by the SCA. Judge Boissie Mbha said a section of the Intimidation Act introduced in 1991 by the Internal Security Amendment Act was a product of an ‘abominable regime’ and had no place in a free‚ open and democratic SA.

People inhabiting communal land should be given title deeds, not permission to occupy the land, Deputy President David Mabuza told the National Council of Provinces in a question-and-answer session yesterday, according to a News24 report. IFP MP from KZN, Mntomuhle Khawula, asked if Mabuza could allay fears that all those land reform plans have nothing to do with the Ingonyama Trust, which administers the land traditionally owned by the Zulu people.

The statutory religious rights commission plans to approach the Equality Court following the alleged continued discrimination of school pupils who belong to the Shembe faith. The learners grow their hair long in accordance with their faith, but, according to a report in The Mercury, KZN school teachers have been cutting the pupils’ hair.

Alochna Moodley (26), who allegedly admitted to using the K-word in reference to black passengers and a pilot in an SMS, has been suspended from work. The Mercury reports Moodley – who was escorted off a Kulula.com flight when the incident was brought to the airline crew’s attention – is also facing disciplinary action after the company where she works was made aware of the incident.

Ever since the ANC put expropriation without compensation firmly on to the political agenda, it has given assurances that this will be done without harming agriculture or food production. This is consistent with the move of the national democratic revolution into its second phase, says the Institute of Race Relations’ John Kane-Berman.

Residents of the Mmangweni rural village in the Eastern Cape, with the help of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), have filed an application in the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) seeking an order requiring the municipality to urgently deliver clean water to the community.

A Paralympian swimmer is taking a Cape Town wine estate to the Equality Court, claiming he was discriminated against when he and his service dog were denied entry to a restaurant. According to a News24 report, Hendri Herbst, from Stellenbosch, alleges he was stripped of his dignity when he and Stan, a golden retriever, were refused access to the restaurant at the Durbanville Hills winery in 2014 because of their “no dogs” policy.

Parliament's Joint Constitutional Review Committee has dismissed as ‘fake news’ reports on social media that warn non-South African citizens who own property that they will be affected by the land expropriation process. A Polity report says a WhatsApp message is spreading false claims that land owned by non-South Africans will be taken away under land expropriation, with owners able to apply to government for a 25-year lease to stay on their land.

Deputy KZN Judge President Isaac Madondo believes it is time that customary law received appropriate treatment and recognition as a constitutionally recognised source of law.

A Durban judge has thrown out a 20-year-old multimillion-rand claim by a community on the KZN South Coast for prime sugar cane land owned by the JSE-listed agricultural group Crookes Brothers, says a Times Select report. Land Claims Court Judge Yasmin Meer had strong words for the Elambini community when she rejected the claim yesterday.