Legal Articles and Guides
A University of Pretoria student leader, who made racist comments on Facebook in which he threatened to kill white people, has apologised for his post, says an SABC News report. Luvuyo Menziwa has been suspended from the SRC while the university is investigating the matter. Menziwa is a fourth year education student and a member of the EFF Student Command.
Access to justice is an ongoing battle for women and children from disadvantaged communities, and free legal advice may make things a little easier. A report on the IoL site notes that as part of the annual Access to Justice week, 60 attorneys have joined the Department of Justice in offering free legal advice to the public at various centres throughout the country.
The advocate who let President Jacob Zuma off the hook left his high-profile position as a Land Claims Court judge in May and has gone into private practice, says a Sunday Tribune report. Two weeks ago, Mokotedi Mpshe SC, appeared in the Durban Commercial Crime Court, representing a couple charged with fraud. It was his first case since he had made the decision.
A former woman candidate attorney was found guilty yesterday on multiple charges that include fraud, crimen injuria and intimidation, says a report on the IoL site. Pravina Walabh (33), of Observatory, Cape Town, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
A Cape Town conveyancer implicated in an alleged fraud case of more than R1m has said he will oppose a High Court ruling to pay back the money, notes a Cape Times report. The Western Cape High Court instructed the Mellow Wood Trust " appointed by the court " to finalise the transfer of property in the alleged fraud case involving attorney Garon Kavin Nortje.
Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe, who doubles as head of the MK Veterans Association (MKMVA), has done a u-turn in a R1m defamation suit by retracting and apologising for the defamatory statements he made about Ronnie Kasrils, the former Intelligence Minister, on a day when his ill-considered words also landed him in trouble in a second defamation action.
Former City Press photo editor Denvor De Wee is at odds with his lawyer over whether he entered into a settlement agreement with Media24 and former City Press editor Ferial Haffajee in his racism defamation court case. The dispute between Media24, Haffajee and four former staffers " who alleged she defamed them by calling them racists " was headed for court last week before Media24"s attorney Andrew Boerner said the case had been settled, which was confirmed by the staffers" attorney Etienne van der Merwe, notes a BDlive report.
A senior advocate snared a "trophy wife" 25 years his junior, got her pregnant then forced her to sign a contract the day before their wedding barring her from claiming maintenance if the marriage broke down. Then, says a Sunday Times report quoting Acting Judge Leslie Weinkove, he "systematically divested his estate of assets" with the "calculated objective of placing them beyond his wife"s reach".
Leave to appeal against a KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) decision to allow media houses to report on the disciplinary proceedings of 11 Department of Public Works employees relating to work on upgrades to President Jacob Zuma"s Nkandla home was dismissed yesterday, notes a report in The Mercury. The employees were seeking to appeal Judge Pete Koen"s ruling two months ago that the allegations that they collectively breached legislation governing their employment were matters of public interest.
A judge hearing a billion-rand South Coast land claim cracked the whip yesterday, banning an aggressive troublemaker " a disbarred attorney " from her courtroom and ordering community representatives to publicly apologise to their lawyers for making "racial slurs" against them, says a report in The Mercury, And in an attempt to finalise the matter " which involves 1 800ha of land and has been dragging on for 16 years " Land Claims Judge Shenaaz Meer ordered both sides to meet next week and "be realistic" in their negotiations.
Despite an extensive two-year tender process, three private security companies still managed to secure multimillion-rand City of Cape Town contracts on the basis of fraudulent Tax Clearance Certificates, the Western Cape High Court has found, according to a Weekend Argus report. So serious were the findings made against Okuli Security Services, Comwezi Security Services and Command Security Services SA, that Acting Judge Michael Donen saw fit to grant a punitive costs order against them.
A network of international journalists investigating the use of offshore bank accounts which enable wealthy clients to reduce the level of scrutiny of their dealings have published new revelations about businessmen in Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia, Egypt and Algeria. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) says the latest research on the Panama Papers " leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca " has exposed "fresh details about the misuse of corporate secrecy and hidden wealth in Africa".
A significant media victory was scored by Carte Blanche when it gained access to the taxation of an attorney-client bill of costs in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. Last week Ronald Bobroff & Partners (RBP) sought to claim R2.1m in fees from its client, road accident victim Etienne Rubbers. RBP was placed under curatorship when two of its three directors, Ronald and Darren Bobroff, fled the country for Australia in mid-March as fugitives from justice. Cora van der Merwe, a cost consultant retained by Rubbers, alleged that R1.9m stood to be taxed off.
Former Minerals and Energy and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna (64) is embroiled in a legal battle to stop the millions he is owed from a broad-based BEE deal with petrochemicals giant Sasol from ending up in the hands of his ex-wife, Nompumelelo Maduna, says a Sunday Times report. He clinched the Sasol deal just two years after leaving the Cabinet in 2004. Maduna – now vice-chair at law firm Bowman Gilfillan – filed urgent papers in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) recently to stop Nompumelelo gaining control of about R18m in dividends scheduled to be paid out by Sasol this month. The court dismissed the urgency of the application, striking it off the court roll and saying that Maduna had not given Nompumelelo (61) and the other five respondents sufficient time to 'digest’ the 690 pages of his founding affidavit.
In what Business Day describes as an unprecedented move, lobby group Advocates For Transformation (AFT) will tomorrow (Saturday) seek the expulsion of the Cape Bar from the General Council of the Bar (GCB) over transformation concerns. The AFT wants the Cape Bar to amend its constitution to require that 50% of its council, the governing body, should be nominated by the AFT, as is the case at the Johannesburg and Pretoria Bars. The GCB’s own governing structures are also constitutionally structured to be 50% AFT. The Cape Bar’s constitution is different. It requires that 50% of members of its council be black – African, coloured, or Indian – but this is not dependent on organisational affiliation. The Business Day report p oints out that until recently, the 50% black requirement meant in practice that 50% of the Cape Bar council’s members were in fact AFT members, as most black members of the Bar were AFT members.
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