Legal Articles and Guides

A case of alleged racism in the workplace has provided the Constitutional Court with an opportunity to clarify what constitutes hate speech and how it relates to freedom of speech. The court was told that it should adopt a position that if racism is proved in the workplace‚ dismissal should follow as a result unless there are exceptional circumstances.

While it is established law that racism in the workplace must not be tolerated following the 2012 Labour Court ruling in Modikwa Mining Personnel Services v CCMA and Others, the recent Constitutional Court 'ground-breaking' judgment in Rustenburg Platinum Mine v SAEWA obo Bester and Others has recognised the truth that phrases which may be regarded as neutral are not necessarily so, due to the impact of the legacy of apartheid and racial segregation that has left us with a 'racially charged present'.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that a white man who called a colleague a ‘swart man’ was justifiably dismissed, primarily because he lied about saying those words and then showed no remorse for his conduct. ‘This ruling is likely to be used as a basis for alarmist arguments that political correctness has gone too far.

Fraud accused legal commentator Brenda Wardle (58) made a brief appearance in court yesterday where she demanded her laptop be plugged in inside the holding cells to allow her to prepare her own defence. The Herald reports this is not the first time Wardle has made odd requests in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court.

The Women's Legal Centre on Friday upset lawyers in the Western Cape High Court when it pointed out that nine counsel had been appointed by the state to argue the organisation's application for the recognition of Muslim marriages, and all nine had advanced the same argument.

An international company providing several jobs in the agricultural sector has had to go to court to remain on a farm it leased from the government after the state transferred the property to land claimants without informing the tenant. A Netwerk24 report notes Eastern Produce, a subsidiary of British company EP SA, has been in a running battle in the Land Claims Court since 2015 to stay on the farm, Wales, in the Bushbuckridge area.

The residents of Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion will oppose the eviction of residents who are illegally occupying RDP houses meant for residents of Mooiplaas informal settlement. A News24 report says the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) yesterday seeking an eviction order to remove illegal occupiers from 888 low-cost houses built in Olievenhoutbosch.

Convicted racist Vicki Momberg, who has been jailed for two years for crimen injuria, has not yet filed an answering affidavit in the contempt of court application launched by the Human Rights Commission for not complying with an Equality Court order. Friday was the deadline for Momberg to file an affidavit stating reasons why she is opposing the application, says a TimesLIVE report.

A group of 24 homeless people, represented by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), have scored a significant victory in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), which ordered metro police to pay them compensation for confiscating their belonging in a clean-up operation. The court ruled that confiscation of goods was illegal.

Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba is tackling inner-city rejuvenation, leading raids on derelict buildings and condemning crime and undocumented foreigners – and now he’s prepared to test the Constitution on expropriation, notes Daily News. According to a Daily Maverick report, his spokesperson Tony Taverna-Turisan said the city had identified 300 hijacked buildings and was investigating launching civil proceedings to take control of 48.

A Durban businessman, who said he was harassed and thrown into jail several times by a policeman at the behest of controversial racehorse owner and friend of President Jacob Zuma, Roy Moodley, has won his case against the Minister of Police.

The row over the ‘rotten egg, big stink’ – said to come from a landfill site adjoining the Durban suburbs of Hillcrest and Shongweni – has intensified, with a fresh legal challenge seeking to compel the relevant Ministers and departments to take action against the site’s owners, waste management company EnviroServ.

The Minister of Police yesterday asked the Constitutional Court not to confirm that two sections in the Firearms Control Act were unconstitutional. According to a TimesLIVE report, the sections‚ if declared unconstitutional‚ will disrupt the police’s goal of regulating firearm ownership by requiring that each firearm owner has a licence which expires after a certain period.

Nudists, whose initial attempts to declare a KZN beach a legal bare-all area failed, are now planning to petition the national government to amend the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1969, TimesLIVE reports.

Prisoners at Johannesburg's 'Sun City' Medium B prison are going without meals for up to 20 hours because of a lack of staff to serve them, the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has heard. GroundUp reports that the case was brought by 14 inmates who told the court they were served both lunch and supper at 1pm because there was insufficient staff to serve their evening meals.