Legal Articles and Guides

The Hawks have confirmed that an investigation into the second-in-command SARS executive and alleged money-launderer Jonas Makwakwa is ongoing, says a HuffPost SA report. Makwakwa was returned last week to a crucial job at the under-performing revenue authority after a year's suspension. SARS spokesperson Sandile Memela said the executive would not be suspended again following the Hawks confirmation that an investigation is still in progress.

Vicki Momberg, the real estate agent whose racist rant at a black police officer was caught on camera, was found guilty of four counts of crimen injuria in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Friday. A News24 report says Momberg's racist tirade happened after she became the victim of a smash-and-grab robbery in February 2016. Magistrate Pravina Rugoonandan said the words used by Momberg were racial and intentional.

A Cape Town woman appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday for allegedly assaulting a 12-year-old girl in what is likely to be the first case to test the ruling against parents hitting their children, reports News24. In terms of the landmark High Court ruling last week parents can no longer use the ‘reasonable chastisement’ argument to hit their children as a form of discipline.

Parents who hit children will no longer be able to plead special defence in court if criminally charged, says a Pretoria News report. Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Raylene Keightley has ruled that the defence of reasonable chastisement was not in line with the Constitution and no longer applied in law. The judgment did not create a new offence, as hitting a child – whether your own or someone else’s – has always been assault under the country’s criminal law.

The South African Constitution provides an extensive Bill of Rights protecting the rights of all South Africans. Notwithstanding the fact that the values underlying the Constitution envisage a parent-child relationship as one excluding all forms of violence, South African parents have until recently been allowed to inflict physical harm on their children for disciplinary purposes. After the recent South Gauteng High Court judgment, this is no longer the position. Consequently, children’s underlying democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom are not allowed to be undermined.

The Road Accident Fund is being targeted by fraudsters who are said to be colluding with corrupt police officers and the organisation’s employees in order to get their hands on payouts, says a Cape Times report. It adds dishonest touts, doctors and lawyers go as far as fabricating claimants’ payslips and medical records or create fictitious dependants and customary marriages for the claimants in order to inflate cash payouts.

President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane Zuma may be the first person to be hauled before AfriForum's private prosecuting unit. A News24 report says former NPA prosecutor Gerrie Nel – who joined AfriForum this year – confirmed that papers have been filed to pursue a culpable homicide case against Duduzane.

The SCA decided the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) judgment reinstating the Zuma corruption charges could not be faulted. In April 2009, then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe dropped the charges based on what became known as the spy tapes, which allegedly showed political interference in the decision. The NPA argued that determining the date for the serving of an indictment on Zuma was politically motivated, notes a BusinessLIVE report.

The SCA is expected to hand down judgment tomorrow (Friday) in the appeal by President Jacob Zuma and the NPA in the spy tapes saga, notes a News24 report. As previously reported, the President and the NPA have conceded that former NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe's decision not to prosecute Zuma on corruption charges was irrational.

Motorist Geoffrey Merrick was handed down a three-year prison sentence for killing a cyclist in a hit-and-run in 2013 in what has been described as a landmark ruling, says a report on the IoL site. The Kuilsriver Magistrate’s Court also suspended Merrick’s driver’s licence for six months. In May 2013, Merrick crashed into Dr Koos Roux, who was cycling with his son. Merrick fled the scene. Police arrested him 10 days later when debris found on the scene matched his car.

The Supreme Court of Appeal has acquitted Thandi Maqubela (62) of the murder of her estranged husband‚ acting Judge Patrick Maqubela, finding he probably died of natural causes. Maqubela was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for murder in 2015, notes a TimesLIVE report. She will‚ however‚ serve sentences for the counts of forgery and fraud‚ the SCA ruled.

A wealthy Western Cape businessman has been handed a 15-year prison sentence for running a R278m Ponzi scheme, according to a TimesLIVE report. Graeme Minne hoodwinked close to 1 000 victims by enticing them with unrealistic returns of up to 65% from foreign exchange trading between 2002 and 2009.

The twenty-year sentence for three counts of culpable homicide, reckless driving and driving under the influence handed down by Magistrate Anand Maharaj to Kriesen Moodley in the Durban Regional Court this week has been welcomed by Justice Project South Africa (JPSA).

Sending out a stern message to drunk drivers, a Durban Regional Court magistrate has given a young man who caused an accident in which three people died a 20-year prison sentence. According to a News24 report Magistrate Anand Maharaj, passing sentence on Kriesen Moodley (24), said: ‘We need sentences that can have the effect of changing the mind-set of such drivers who become lethal weapons.’

The SCA is due to hear arguments in the state’s appeal against Oscar Pistorius’ six-year jail sentence on 3 November, says a Pretoria News report. Pistorius returned to jail for a second time in June 2016 to start serving his six-year jail term for the Valentine's Day 2013 killing of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.