Legal Articles and Guides

The SCA has ruled that provisions of a KZN Liquor Act which stated that stores could not be situated next to schools or places of worship did not apply to pre-existing licence holders, says a report in The Mercury. The court was dealing with an appeal brought by Shoprite Checkers against a judgment by KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) Judge Mahendra Chetty last year, in which he had found that businesses with old licences – granted under the 1989 Act – and new licences had to comply with the provisions.

The City of Tshwane and the Ekurhuleni municipality have approached the Constitutional Court to appeal against a judgment that municipalities may not hold a property owner liable for a previous owner’s historical municipal debts. A Business Day report notes the judgment of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) gave relief to home and business owners who had been saddled with years of historical municipal debt, and who have been refused municipal services until the debt had been settled.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that when a partner in a permanent same-sex partnership dies‚ the surviving one‚ even though they are not legally married‚ inherits the deceased’s intestate estate‚ says a report in The Herald. The case concerned the intestate succession rights of unmarried partners in a permanent same-sex partnership in which the partners had undertaken reciprocal duties of support.

The SCA has acquitted a man who was sentenced to life in prison for murder and robbery. According to a News24 report, Daniel Mahlalela's murder and robbery conviction was set aside after he had spent 16 years in prison. Mahlalela, along with two other people, who were not part of his appeal, were charged with murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and possession of a firearm.

At least one parent must donate sperm or eggs for a surrogacy agreement to be legal, the Constitutional Court ruled yesterday, dashing the hopes of an infertile woman who had wanted to ask a surrogate to carry a baby for her – despite being medically unable to use her own eggs or to donate sperm from a spouse or sexual partner. She is single after a split from her husband, says a TimesLIVE report. At stake during the complex legal arguments were fundamental issues involving the natural bond between a parent and child‚ as well as the child's right to know where he or she comes from.

The Constitutional Court has refused both the DA and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution direct access to challenge the constitutionality of a state decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, according to a Business Day report. Its decision means the opposition parties will have to go up the hierarchy of courts to stop the withdrawal – a lengthy option that may result in the matter being heard after the fact.

The Constitutional Court yesterday found that a five-year extension won by a private company, Tasima, to run the national traffic information system in 2010 was unlawful, ordering the system be handed over to the Road Traffic Management Corporation within 30 days, notes a BusinessLIVE report. The court concluded that the contract violated the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, and Treasury regulations.

Private property developers at the centre of a legal dispute expected the court to ‘get blood out of a stone’ when they asked that Bromwell Street residents in Woodstock – who are facing eviction – pay their legal costs. A Cape Times report says the lawyer for Woodstock Hub had asked the Western Cape High Court yesterday to order the residents to pay for the legal fees.

The Department of Transport’s fight with service provider Tasima continues in the Constitutional Court today. A Business Day report says this leg of the legal tussle could bring the drawn-out battle to an end. The source of the tension is a five-year contract extension granted to Tasima in 2010, which the department contends is invalid. Also at play are the department’s repeated failures to pay Tasima despite it being ordered to do so by a court.

Municipalities may not hold a property owner liable for a previous owner’s historical municipal debts, the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) ruled yesterday, notes Business Day. It says the judgment will give relief to home and business owners who have been saddled with years of historical municipal debt, and who have been refused municipal services until the debt had been settled.

A dagga-smoking woodcutter has become the first person in the Eastern Cape to obtain a stay of prosecution pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge by a husband and wife widely known as ‘the dagga couple’. The Herald reports the ruling by the Eastern Cape High Court (Port Elizabeth) that the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions hold back on prosecuting Bryan Jones (38) has now opened the floodgates for other dagga users to bring similar applications.

The Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) – represented by Norton Rose Fulbright – has filed an application at the Constitutional Court challenging SA's withdrawal from the ICC, says a GroundUp report. The application was filed against President Jacob Zuma, the government and a number of government officials, including Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

The quality of legal advice the government is getting has again been raised in connection with the way it has gone about initiating SA’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the So Many Questions feature in the Sunday Times, Anton du Plessis, executive director of the Institute for Security Studies, was asked whether the DA, which is seeking to challenge the government decision in the Constitutional Court, had a strong case.

Wayne Wickham, whose 18-year-old son was killed in a car crash in Stellenbosch four years ago, had his wounds reopened last week when the Constitutional Court denied him leave to appeal against a judgment of the Western Cape High Court which prevented him from having a say in the criminal prosecution of Annika Slabbert, the driver of the car in which his son was killed. ‘The situation (Wickham) finds himself in commands our sympathy and respect,’ the Constitutional Court said in its ruling, according to a Sunday Times report.

The DA has applied for direct access to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Cabinet decision to pull SA out of the International Criminal Court. The decision was unconstitutional and a breach of the Bill of Rights‚ the DA argued in papers filed with the Constitutional Court yesterday, says a BusinessLIVE report. It wants the court to declare the withdrawal notice and the Cabinet decision to issue it invalid; and to order the government to revoke it.