Legal Articles and Guides

Mercantile Bank has been taken to court over allegations it conspired with an alleged fraudster in illegal asset stripping worth hundreds of millions of rands. A Fin24 report says the litigation could not have come at a worse time, as the Portuguese-owned and SA-based bank is up for sale. Alert Steel is seeking damages of R351m caused by alleged ‘mastermind’ Rayhaan Hassim, Mercantile Bank and West Lake Trade and Investments following what it believes was an illegal liquidation process in 2014.

Skyrocketing medico-legal claims threaten to cripple SA’s public and private health sectors as specialists face exorbitant litigation. Without drastic intervention, experts warn, healthcare could soon become unaffordable – or unavailable. Meanwhile, legal experts say mediation could be a solution hiding in plain sight, notes a Bhekisisa report.

Cash-strapped state-owned airline SA Express is facing an application for liquidation because it cannot pay its debts, says a BusinessLIVE report. The application has been brought in the Gauteng High Court by aircraft leasing company Solenta Aviation on the basis of the non-payment of R87.3m and will be heard on 11 August if it is not opposed. But SA Express acting CEO Victor Xaba said the airline did intend to oppose the application because of a dispute over the amount owed.

The mother of two Olympic athletes is facing a 15-year prison sentence after being accused of forging her deceased husband’s will and trying to defraud his estate of millions, says a Saturday Star report. Adelene Toxopeus (58), mother of Olympic marathon runner Irvette van Zyl and mother-in-law of Olympic hurdler LJ van Zyl, has been accused of forging several documents to swindle millions from the estate of her late husband, Pieter.

Buy-to-let property can be an excellent investment. Just be sure that you take into account the possible difficulty, cost and delay of evicting a defaulting tenant – or indeed any unlawful occupier – who refuses to budge. The problem of course is that you have to keep on paying all your property expenses whilst the legal processes grind their way slowly, painfully and expensively through the courts.

Here’s yet another reminder from our courts on how important it is – if you want to avoid the trials of litigation – for you to have your property sale agreement drawn up professionally.  One thing it must do, as the case in question clearly shows, is record the terms of your agreement precisely and without any room for argument. This High Court case in Phepeng and Another v Estate Late Ame Combrinck and Others revolved around a “bond clause” in a sale agreement. 

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has declared two sections of the Firearms Control Act unconstitutional. According to a report on the IoL site, the sections deal with procedures that should be in place when surrendering a firearm for which the licence has already lapsed. In her groundbreaking judgment, Judge Ronel Tolmay ordered that all firearms issued in terms of the Act, which are or were due to be renewed, shall be deemed to be valid, until the Constitutional Court had spoken the last word on the subject.

More than 11 years after he was shot in the leg by police and then detained for 64 days, during which time he had to have his suppurating leg amputated, a former bricklayer has finally got justice, says a News24 report. Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati, in the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) ordered the Minister of Police to pay Sinovuyo Godlo almost R7.8m in compensation and to pick up the bill for his legal fees and expert reports.

The inquiry into timeshare investment will get to the bottom of the issues raised by complainants, is the assurance from Consumer Commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed as the National Consumer Commission’s (NCC) first round of public hearings into the timeshare industry got under way.

The Gupta-owned company Optimum Coal Mine has issued a summons for R10m against a small company. Optimum alleges Re-Action Consulting, which builds public health clinics, has published false and defamatory statements in court papers, says a GroundUp report. Re-Action is litigating to get Optimum wound up for being unable to pay its debts.

Slamming corruption in SA as a cancer ‘eating at the fabric of our society’, Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Ellem Jacob Francis yesterday set aside Prasa’s controversial R3.5bn contract with Swifambo Rail Leasing for new locomotives too tall for SA's rail network, notes Daily News.

The Western Cape government is to blame for the death of a baby at an unregistered daycare centre‚ a judge has found. Five-month-old Ava Barley suffocated after she rolled off a bed at a Cape Town daycare centre in 2010. A report in The Times notes Judge Daniel Dlodlo, of the Western Cape High Court, found that despite its excuses and ‘bald denials’ of responsibility, the Social Development Department was liable to pay damages to her parents‚ Craig and Riette Barley.

For the second time in less than a month, an international dispute with virtually no South African connection has ended up in a local court. The latest is an application brought in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) last week by Balkan Energy against the government of Ghana. A few years back Balkan won an international arbitration award against the government of Ghana for US$12m that Ghana has refused to pay.

Changes to the legal framework and regulation of business rescue, particularly to registration of practitioners, will take effect as from 1 October 2017, says a Fin24 report. Business rescue came into effect via the Companies Act in 2011. ‘Although relatively successful, business rescue has received criticism resulting from apparent flaws in the appointment process and quality of business rescue practitioners.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled public schools cannot promote one religion. The case was brought by the Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy (Ogod) against six schools, notes a News24 report. Judge Willem van der Linde, in handing down the judgment, said: ‘Neither a school governing body nor a public school may lawfully hold out that it subscribes to only a single particular religion to the exclusion of others.’