Legal Articles and Guides

It is technically legal for one person to earn millions to manage a pension fund, and there is no obligation to use that money to benefit the pensioners who invested in that fund – as long as a court sanctions such a deal. A Saturday Star report says this was the SCA’s conclusion when ruling on a case accusing attorney Anthony Mostert of charging exorbitant fees for one of the 10 pension funds under his curatorship.

Dirk Stoffberg is to inherit his stepfather’s Gonubie home – despite the fact that his wife first drafted three apparently fraudulent wills in which he was the main beneficiary. A Daily Dispatch report says Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) Judge Jeremy Pickering ruled Stoffberg should inherit the home of his stepfather, Stuart Bruce Doveton Helps, after his wife Lesley drew up a will in which Stoffberg was named as the beneficiary.

Failure to follow customs to the letter when marrying his partner has cost a Soweto man the right to bury her. The Mercury reports Leonard Khosa was interdicted by the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) yesterday from burying Ayanda Zulu, for whom he completed paying lobolo in 2014.

A fund manager and professor in applied mathematics who was adopted 51 years ago as a baby has approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to set aside his adoption in order to claim a share of his wealthy biological father's estate, notes Rapport.

Springbok legend Joost van der Westhuizen’s widow Amor Vittone is of the opinion that despite his motor neuron disease in 2015, he was still able to sign a document or at least make a mark on it. A Pretoria News report says Vittone or is vigorously opposing an application by Joost’s brother Pieter van der Westhuizen and lawyer Ferdinand Hartzenberg, who turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to have the will declared his last wish.

An unexpected passing can be shocking and traumatising. Grieving the loss of a precious loved one is not only filled with sorrow, but adds emotional challenges when one has to deal with the finalising of their estate. This is enough to cause anguish due to the complexity that it seems from the outset. The bravest thing one can ever do is to continue to attend to the last wishes of those who have passed on to another life beyond our own.

The legal battle between Springbok legend Joost van der Westhuizen’s brother and his estranged celebrity wife Amor Vittone over his last will and testament has been postponed indefinitely. A Pretoria News report says the will has been a bone of contention since Joost’s death in February. The rugby star's brother, Pieter van der Westhuizen, and then attorney, Ferdinand Hartzenberg, turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to declare the will drawn up in September 2015 as his last.

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.

If you don’t want to be kept artificially alive – without your consent and perhaps in pain and distress – long after your medical condition becomes hopeless, you need to communicate your decision now to the doctors, hospitals and loved ones who will be caring for you at the end.

Western Cape High Court Judge Andre le Grange has declared the Wills Act inconsistent with the Constitution, as it only recognises legal marriages and not Muslim marriages. A Cape Argus report says this comes in the wake of a highly publicised Muslim Marriages’ legal dispute.

Elefterios ‘Lefty’ Piagalis – who caused his father (83) to write a new will on his death bed, thereby disinheriting his two brothers – will now have to share the family wealth as per their father’s original wishes. According to a Saturday Star report, Lefty asked the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to declare that his father’s ‘last will’ – signed shortly before his death in June 2010 – was legitimate.

If you haven’t made your will yet, get it done now. Why is that so important and how should you go about it? To answer that let’s debunk a few of the more pervasive myths and misconceptions around those questions.

The legal status of (Nikah) Muslim marriages in South Africa is amongst the most frequently queried legal issues, which unfortunately still attracts the most divergent responses. Prior to the advent of democracy, (Nikah) Muslim marriages, together with Hindu and other Traditional marriage, were not recognized as having the same legal status as civil marriages in terms of the Marriage Act 25 of 1961. Numerous reasons were finished for non-recognition, and no constructive engagement regarding the issue was entertained. An example of the then status quo, is the 1983 ruling in Ismail vs. Ismail 1983 (1) SA1006 (A).

Application to compel recognition of Muslim marriages evokes fierce legal argument. As 2015 drew to a close the Women’s Legal Centre’s application to compel government to recognise Muslim marriages finally saw the light of day. However the organisation encountered yet another stumbling block as their locus standi (the right or capacity to bring an action or appear before court) was contested by Muslim organisations.

Succession, colloquially referred to as inheriting, is the process whereby the heirs of a deceased person succeed to the assets which the deceased left behind at the time of death. Assets in this instance refer to the residue after all liabilities and debts of the deceased have been settled.