Legal Articles and Guides

The JSC has dismissed claims by drunk-driving judge Nkola Motata that the tribunal it appointed to help discipline him is unlawful. Motata has been on special leave since he crashed his Jaguar into the wall of a Johannesburg home in 2007 while drunk and is challenging the JSC’s disciplinary structures in the Constitutional Court, notes a TimesLIVE report.

Western Cape High Court Judge Leslie Weinkove has recused himself from one of the high-profile cases he had been presiding over. A Cape Argus report says Weinkove – who is presiding over the ongoing contentious Bromwell Street eviction saga – came under fire after he made what had been deemed racist remarks in court last month. Weinkove questioned the evicted residents’ request to be close to crucial amenities when they are eventually forced to vacate Woodstock.

Personal injury lawyers Ronald and Darren Bobroff abused their knowledge of court procedures to effectively prevent the court from examining their misconduct. This is one of the key reasons a full Bench at the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) decided the father and son duo, both directors of Ronald Bobroff and Partners (RBP), should be struck off the roll of attorneys in December last year, according to a Tony Beamish report on the Moneyweb site.

The terminally will not be able to approach the courts and ask for the right to die after the SCA upheld the government's appeal against a High Court judgment in which euthanasia advocate Robin Stransham-Ford won the right to doctor-assisted suicide last year‚ but died two hours before the ruling was given.

The SCA has found a racial quota policy implemented for the appointment of liquidators to be unlawful and invalid. It ruled on Friday that an appeal against a finding of its unconstitutionality be ‘dismissed with costs,’ upholding the High Court’s finding of the policy as ‘unconstitutional and irrational’ as well as ‘unlawful and invalid’, notes a News24 report.

What an amaBhungane report calls an ‘extraordinary’ complaint has been lodged with the KZN Society of Advocates against Nalini Govender, a member of the Durban Bar who has also served as a magistrate in the province. A local bond originator, Suchu Pillay, alleges that Govender disclosed to him in mid-2015 that she had received more than R500 000 from ‘Mpisane’, which he understood to refer to the husband-and-wife team of Sbu and Shauwn Mpisane.

Land reform beneficiaries in Limpopo are accusing their lawyer of hijacking their multimillion-rand farming project, notes a City Press report. The beneficiaries of the R61.4m Zebediela Citrus Estate in Limpopo allege prominent lawyer Tumi Mokwena got a stake in their business through the back door. Mokwena, who represented EFF leader Julius Malema in his tax trial, came to Zebediela Citrus as a lawyer last year to represent the 1 500 beneficiaries when they were fighting the removal of a strategic partner, Henley Property Management.

Durban businessman Vivian Reddy plans to sue a Johannesburg newspaper and cartoonist for defamation amounting to R20m. It follows recent reports that a company owned by his son Shantan Reddy had won a R171m contract linked to the country’s planned nuclear programme, notes the Sunday Tribune. The company is Central Lake Trading 149 and trades as Empire Technology.

Dodgy lawyers are stealing hundreds of millions from their clients by looting trust accounts, claims a Sunday Times report. It says Peter Cowling and Christiaan Janeke are the latest lawyers to be struck off the roll, and are facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing at least R65m from their clients, many of whom were pensioners.

Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti has been called on to intervene in a conflict involving land worth more than R600m awarded 15 years ago to people forcefully removed from Ndabeni, near Pinelands, Cape Town, says a Weekend Argus report. Concerns have been raised over the sale of land for far less than its value and that the trustees did not have the mandate to sell the land.

A single mother of three children who admitted stealing more than R400 000 from her employer has won the first fight in her battle to stay out of prison, notes a TimesLIVE report. Moshina Essop was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court to 10 years' imprisonment but only half the sentence was suspended‚ and yesterday the SCA gave her permission to appeal to the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg).

This week’s victory for suspended Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) executive director Robert McBride in the Constitutional Court is the latest in several cases the government has lost before the court in recent months, according to a TimesLIVE report. Before the latest judgment‚ the court in March ruled that the failure by President Jacob Zuma to comply with the remedial action ordered against him by the Public Protector concerning the improvements at his Nkandla home was inconsistent with the Constitution.

The Eastern Cape High Court (East London) was meant to hear the rape and murder case of Sakhumzi Mhlamvana, a matter set down for the whole week before Judge Lusindiso Pakade (68). But The Herald reports after waiting for hours yesterday for the judge to arrive, officials were finally told that he had resigned.

The case against former Advocate Karabo Tau (39) was postponed in the Bloemfontein Magistrate"s Court to 14 September. A News24 says Tau faces charges of corruption, extortion, impersonating an advocate, and conspiracy to commit an offence. He was arrested in Bloemfontein last week after he was allegedly approached by the families of nine people found guilty of the theft of diesel and racketeering.

The Constitutional Court has reminded the Pretoria Society of Advocates of its duty to both the public and the courts to take appropriate steps to stop a struck-off advocate from continuing to practise, notes Daily News. It made the comment in a unanimous judgment handed down yesterday (Thursday) in the case of Ralph Patrick Ndleve, who had approached the court for a fifth time " his first four applications had been dismissed " in a bid to have his striking-off for malpractice and theft set aside.