Legal Articles and Guides

A Limpopo miner who believed he was HIV positive and used anti-retroviral medication is suing his doctor for R478 000, Beeld reports.

SARS is seeking R388m in taxes owed by businessman Mark Lifman and has asked the High Court to put all his business entities under liquidation in an attempt to recoup the money.

A multi-millionaire grandmother who controls her children through her fortunes got more than she bargained after she sought urgent help through the court to see her granddaughter (8), says a Pretoria News report. The elderly woman, identified as R in a Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) judgment, demanded that the court immediately listen to her case as it involved a child.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will not fight a major legal challenge to the R140m arms deal inquiry, which found there was no evidence of corruption in the multibillion-rand agreement. A Business Day report suggests Ramaphosa’s decision not to oppose the review application filed by Corruption Watch and Right2Know could have significant consequences for former President Jacob Zuma, who has used the report, compiled by Judge Willie Seriti, in his pending bid to permanently stay his prosecution for corruption.

The provisional liquidator of the VBS Mutual Bank has approached the courts to recover R2.7m loaned by the bank to cash-strapped businessperson, Brian Shivambu, younger brother of EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu. A Mail & Guardian report notes the funds are part of a R4m loan facility controversially granted to Shivambu’s company Sgameka Projects by the bank in late 2017.

A recent Labour Appeal Court ruling amounts to a stark warning to employers to be more tolerant of their employees’ religious beliefs. The court ruled in favour of Deidre Beverley Faris, who took her employer, TDF Network Africa, to court over what she deemed was an unfair dismissal over her unavailability to work over the Sabbath.

Umgeni Water broke National Treasury’s rules and awarded a R220m security tender to an ANC-linked company whose taxes were not in order at the time, says a City Press report. In December, Umgeni Water awarded the three-year tender to guard the water utility’s assets to Reshebile Aviation and Protection Services, which at the time owed SARS both payroll tax and VAT. Treasury forbids the awarding of tenders to companies which are not tax compliant.

The SCA has set aside former President Jacob Zuma’s decision to install Toni Mphephu Ramabulana as king of Vhavenda, ruling on Friday that his appointment was illegal and unconstitutional, notes a report in The Citizen.

Petrus and Hendrina Malan are suing Absa and Vodacom for about R1.18m, claiming they were swindled out of their company’s working capital through a SIM swap scam.

A court application by a Gupta-linked company in Bermuda to secure R1bn from the estate of the Optimum Coal Mine has been rubbished as just another attempt to make the business rescue of various Gupta companies grind to a halt, says a City Press report.

The KZN Department of Health appears to be heading for another legal showdown when the head of surgery from the strife-torn Ngwelazana Hospital returns to his job, which has already been given to someone else, suggests a Sunday Tribune report.

The lead prosecutor in Jacob Zuma’s corruption case is suing the former President for saying he was driven by his own hatred of Zuma and blinded by an obsession to see him behind bars, says a Business Day report. Advocate Billy Downer has asked the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) to strike out more than a dozen ‘scandalous and vexatious’ and ‘untrue and unwarranted’ statements Zuma made in his application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Trevor Manuel is suing the EFF, its leader Julius Malema and its spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi after they alleged that he oversaw a ‘nepotistic’ and ‘corrupt’ process to appoint new SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter, reports Business Day.

A lawyer whose firm is at the centre of a Public Protector probe into the alleged monopolisation of lucrative litigation outsourced by the State Attorney’s Office, was roped in to assist in the prosecution of former President Jacob Zuma, notes a Times Select report.

Author Pieter-Louis Myburgh has condemned the V&A Waterfront for failing to 'defend free speech' when it cancelled the launch of his book Gangster State, about ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, over safety concerns. V&A spokesperson Donald Kau said the decision to cancel the launch had been made in consultation with the police.