Legal Articles and Guides

The SCA ruled last week, in a 4-1 decision, that the trust created by a donor for the benefit of his children and their descendants did not include two stepchildren adopted by one of his daughters, notes TimesLIVE. In this case, Louis John Druiff executed a Notarial Deed of Trust as well as a will 'for the benefit of his children and their descendants'.

The government will research the law governing the recognition and dissolution of all religious marriages, as it plans to appeal a Western Cape High Court judgment that ordered the state to recognise Muslim marriages under law. According to a Cape Times report, the Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) had argued that by not recognising Muslim marriages under common law, Muslim women were not afforded legal protection and did not have access to the courts to assert their rights.

Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha is a public figure and he should behave. According to City Press these were the words of Judge Nelisa Mali before dismissing an urgent application by Mathabatha to gag the newspaper on Saturday night. Mali agreed that the matter was urgent, but dismissed the application with costs.

The Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) has awarded R20 000 damages to a man who was party to encouraging a mass occupation of municipal land in Mdantsane, after it found the Daily Dispatch had defamed him. The court found that while Mzukisi Soyi may have acted unlawfully by encouraging the illegal occupation of municipal land and use of electricity, the newspaper had defamed him by incorrectly reporting he had sold the plots to people as part of a ‘scam’.

The long-awaited test case of e-toll defaulters has been handed to Judge Ronél Tolmay of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), says Rapport. The defendant is Thandanani Packers & Hauliers, of Benoni, which allegedly owes Sanral more than R400 000.

The financial affairs of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) took centre stage at the KZN High Court (Durban) on Friday during a matter involving the ANCYL and the civic organisation, Active Citizens Movement (ACM), says a Sunday Tribune report. The ACM brought an application in April last year to prevent the Youth League from disrupting a memorial service it had organised for ANC stalwart Ahmed Kathrada. Despite an order being in place, the memorial descended into chaos with speakers being booed.

Legal advice given to the City of Cape Town reveals that the development plan for Maiden’s Cove was irregular and the City was advised not to proceed with the development. A Cape Argus report notes legal advisers JJ Gauntlett SC QC and FB Pelser said in papers: ‘We consider that the process followed to date with regards to the Maiden’s Cove development is irregular and will be set aside on review. This despite the delay.’

SA-born handbag designer Lana Marks, the globe-trotting businesswoman who is tipped to be the next US ambassador to SA, is caught up in a family feud playing out in the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown). A Sunday Times report notes Marks is embroiled in a spat with her two siblings over control of their parents’ assets worth millions. She has been accused by her brother Malcolm Bank and sister Anne Pogroske of transferring their parents’ apartment in Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach, Florida, into her name without her siblings’ knowledge.

A primary school teacher fired for hitting and kicking pupils and smacking a mother has been thrown a lifeline says a Times Select report. Port Elizabeth Labour Court Judge Connie Prinsloo said an arbitrator’s rubber-stamping of Rubin Kleinbooi’s dismissal was ‘grossly irregular’.

Judge Siraj Desai, of the Western Cape High Court, has authorised the Cape Fertility Clinic to perform artificial fertilisation requested by a same-sex couple that includes the simultaneous transfer of one embryo fertilised with sperm from the one father and another that had been fertilised by his husband. If the in vitro fertilisation is successful, the couple’s children would be twins with different DNA, notes a Sunday Times report.

The battle over the state’s bid to process new land claims while it has not settled those brought 20 years ago is headed for a fresh round at the Constitutional Court, says a report in The Star. Admitting to having failed to comply with the court’s order to re-enact legislation within 24 months to enable processing of new claims, Parliament has pleaded for an extension of the deadline. The state sought to be allowed to process the 163 383 new claims it accepted between 2014 and 2016.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) and human rights lawyer Richard Spoor are preparing another class action suit, this time against coal mining companies on behalf of miners suffering from pneumoconiosis, also called black lung disease, and their families. The sick coal miners are from Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga and KZN, says TimesLIVE.

Former prosecutor Gerrie Nel is seeking to bring a private prosecution against a prominent person in the financial sector who allegedly raped his three-year-old granddaughter. Nel is now head of private prosecutions for AfriForum, which yesterday said it has applied for a nolle prosequi certificate from the NPA.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to uphold a promise made in 2014 to issue a moratorium on farm evictions, GroundUp reports. In November 2014, Ramaphosa, as Deputy President at the time, was quoted by City Press as promising a moratorium on evictions, after he and a delegation of senior Ministers met agricultural and farm labour representatives in Paarl.

The Centre for Environmental Rights has told MPs that the government should drop its plan to commission new coal power from independent power producers (IPPs) or face legal action, says a Business Day report. Two years ago the government called for bids for 1 000MW of coal power by IPPs and selected two consortiums to build the stations.