Legal Articles and Guides

The Gauteng Education Department will approach the Constitutional Court directly to challenge the Overvaal school decision, MEC Panyaza Lesufi said. The department's legal team met the national Department of Basic Education on Monday and will file an appeal on Friday, Lesufi said.

Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge, who ordered the Minister of Police to pay R560 000 for the unlawful arrest of a young man, said the primary purpose of the damages award was not to enrich the aggrieved party. The payment awarded to Onele Mkwati in the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha), said the judge, was to ensure the award reflected the importance of the right to personal liberty and the seriousness with which any arbitrary deprivation of personal liberty was viewed in SA law.

The Western Cape High Court has ruled that peaceful protests without notice to authorities will now be allowed. A Cape Argus report says the groundbreaking ruling followed a Social Justice Coalition (SJC) appeal challenging the criminalisation of the Regulation of Gatherings Act (RGA).

A precedent-setting judgment by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) will have significant implications for thousands of people waiting for government-subsidised housing, and for state institutions dragging their feet over housing delivery. GroundUp reports that the City of Ekurhuleni was ordered to build 133 houses by 31 December this year for successful applicants, some who have been waiting as long as 20 years.

Gender identity and discrimination in SA's prisons will come under the spotlight in two separate matters expected to be heard in the courts soon, Mail & Guardian Online reports. Jade September, a transgender woman, has started proceedings against the Department of Correctional Services for discrimination suffered at various prison facilities because of her gender identity and expression.

The University of the Free State’s sole language of instruction is now officially English after the Constitutional Court refused AfriForum leave to appeal a judgment of the SCA that upheld the university's appeal against a High Court order which said the policy decision was unlawful. A BusinessLIVE report notes AfriForum and Solidarity had appealed to the Constitutional Court, after the SCA overturned the judgment of the Free State High Court (Bloemfontein), which reviewed and set aside the language policy adopted by the university senate in 2016.

The Henri van Breda saga is a perfect example of how media broadcasts and livestreaming from a high-profile trial can stoke public interest and engagement. But what about the rights of witnesses to privacy and security? And the accused person’s right to a fair trial? How should our courts balance these rights against those of the public and the media?

Home Affairs Minister Ayanda Dlodlo will approach the SCA to challenge the Oppenheimer family’s court victory in October to run a private international terminal at OR Tambo International Airport. A Business Day report says on Friday the department lost the second round in a battle that has pitched the Oppenheimers against the Guptas when the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) dismissed its application for leave to appeal against the October judgment.

The SCA has set aside a murder conviction and sentence imposed on Lefu Jantjie Bakane‚ because of the unlawful manner in which a confession was obtained from him. A TimesLIVE report notes Bakane and three other men were found guilty in 2009 of the murder of Johannes Albertus Maré.

Tired of having their lives on hold for up to six years, college students are being given the pro bono assistance of a law firm to launch a class action against the state for not ensuring they receive their certificates of graduation, according to a City Press report. Keneilwe Molawa, a former student at Motheo technical and vocational education and training college in Bloemfontein, has been trying to get her civil engineering and building construction national vocational certificate since 2010.

The Oppenheimers’ plans to run customs and immigration services at OR Tambo International Airport is on hold for now, pending the outcome of possible appeal proceedings against last month’s Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) judgment in favour of the family, notes a Pretoria News report.

The Constitutional Court has held that the rules of the temporary shelter provided by the City of Johannesburg infringed on the residents’ rights to dignity‚ freedom and security of the person and privacy. A TimesLIVE report says the shelter not only did not allow spouses to sleep together but that residents had to leave in the morning and return before lockdown every night.

The Constitutional Court has confirmed that a law which governs matrimonial property in customary marriages is unconstitutional, says a TimesLIVE report. Section 7(1) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (RCMA) of 1998 provides that wives who entered into customary marriages before the Act was passed do not have marital property rights.

A Benoni Regional Court Magistrate Mitzi Schutte, who has been found by appellate courts to have brought the administration of justice into disrepute on three prior occasions, has been admonished again by the SCA‚ which said her conduct eroded public confidence in the judicial system. The latest case dealt with an application by three men‚ who will again stand trial for murder and attempted murder, notes a TimesLIVE report.

A ground-breaking case in which activist groups seek a declaration that the allocation of police resources in the Western Cape unfairly discriminates against black and poor people goes to the Equality Court in Cape Town today. The case was brought by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and Equal Education (EE) against the Minister of Police, the National and Provincial Police Commissioners and the Western Cape MEC for Community Safety in March 2016.