Legal Articles and Guides

The Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB), which may be forced to pay back millions it has allegedly unlawfully collected in rent for nearly a decade from people living on land it controls on behalf of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, needs more time to respond to a legal challenge.

The Western Cape High Court has granted an order compelling the owner of a Sea Point security company to pay outstanding provident fund contributions totalling at least R2.3m. GroundUp reports Proexec Security Network and its owner Geoffrey Levy failed to consistently pay contributions to the Private Sector Security Provident Fund for several years.

The difference between registered mail and secured mail to serve road traffic offences – better known as Aarto notices – was a hot topic of debate in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) this week. The Justice Project SA insisted that either personal service or service by registered mail was the only way in which to serve traffic fines in terms of the Aarto Act.

The suspension of the Sans Souci Girls' High School pupil, who was slapped by a teacher in a video that went viral, was upheld at her disciplinary hearing yesterday, according to a News24 report. Her distraught mother said ‘they (Sans Souci) never cared about my daughter’, and claimed the principal called her aside before the hearing and ‘advised’ her to take her daughter to another school.

Viwe Mtwesi, a cardiologist, has opened a case of crimen injuria and defamation of character at the Pretoria West police station against a woman who labelled her a 'prostitute' on social media because of the dress she wore. A Twitter user by the name of Warrior Woman Elminie called Mtwesi a prostitute via an account that has since been deleted.

The Makangwane School Governing Body (SGB) has been vindicated in the recent judgment delivered by Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) Judge Makgutla Semenya, says Section27’s Zukiswa Pikoli, in an analysis of the judgment on the law centre’s site.

One of the Eastern Cape's most controversial lawyers – who has been involved in a number of medico-legal and Road Accident Fund (RAF) cases – has been arrested. The lawyer, not named in the TimesLIVE report, was arrested in Mthatha yesterday evening by a Hawks team lead by national investigators. He is due in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court today.

Hillcrest company Jalibird – that promoted international singer Nicki Minaj’s 2016 SA tour – is suing the Department of Economic Development & Tourism for R3m allegedly still due to it. The Witness reports the claim is made in papers that came before the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) this week.

A legal battle for ownership of rights to land leased to a major petrol station has ended up in the Constitutional Court. A Cape Times report notes Shell SA had in 1991 built a petrol station in Nelspruit (now Mbombela) in Mpumalanga, on land it leased from HL Hall & Sons and – according to court papers – Hall had undertaken that if ever it wished to sell the land it would first offer it to Shell.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has described the decision by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to dismiss an application by eight Somali asylum seekers to review their rejected applications as shocking. The LHR’s Wayne Ncube said the organisation intended to appeal the decision.

A multimillion-rand tender with the City of Johannesburg – that a City Press report says had the potential to be one of the good stories of government’s vision to empower black women – has gone sour and the city is being sued for R8m for not honouring the contract. Faithfulness Business Enterprise was awarded a contract to supply and deliver protective footwear for members of the metro police department valued at R23.760m over three years in 2014.

A widow has won her appeal against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for compensation in the Western Cape High Court after her common law husband was killed when knocked over by a container being conveyed by a so-called ‘reach stacker’ at the Multipurpose Terminal at Cape Town Harbour nearly nine years ago.

The SA Teacher's Union (SAOU) says it supports the Sans Souci Girls' High School teacher who was caught on video slapping a pupil, notes News24. In a statement yesterday, the union said: ‘The SAOU wishes to emphasise that we support our member and her labour rights,’ the union said in a statement.

Kalu, the famous chimpanzee that has been living for years in an enclosure at Broadlands Stud Farm in Somerset West, owned by Patricia Cavendish O’Neill, is at the centre of a civil suit after biting off the finger of woman who lived on the farm, notes a Cape Argus report.

The inquiry into a Durban surgeon who allegedly said Indians had a 'coolie' mentality and told a colleague he had bad odour, has been adjourned to March. The committee spent the first of three days set down for the inquiry deliberating on whether certain evidence from a CCMA ruling would be allowed to be presented at the inquiry, reports the Daily News.