Legal Articles and Guides

A legal challenge is on the cards following a decision to make English the official language of record for courts. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s office confirmed the decision, which has already attracted criticism from AfriForum and the Pan South African Language Board, notes a Sunday Times report. AfriForum’s Alana Bailey said the pro-Afrikaans group was considering mounting a legal challenge, and Rakwena Monareng, CEO of the Language Board, said while the board would seek a discussion with the heads of courts, litigation could not be ruled out.

The spotlight had been thrown on the legal duty of doctors who cover for each other following a recent KZN High Court (Durban) judgment dealing with medical negligence, notes a report in The Mercury. In the case, Judge Johan Ploos van Amstel ruled that Dr Abdool Suliman could not be found responsible for birth defects suffered by a baby after being deprived of oxygen while his mother was in labour.

Private schools are entitled to recover debt through the forced sale of homes owned by defaulting parents, the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) ruled yesterday, says a News24 report. The application, before KZN Judge President Achmat Jappie, was brought by St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg against Henry and Gleryl Du Hecquet De Rauville. They had two sons at the school, who had both matriculated.

We’ll know today whether National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete will defer to the Constitutional Court – which yesterday granted the UDM its request to hear its arguments for a secret ballot to be used in the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma – or attempt to pre-empt any finding the court may make by insisting the no confidence vote is held on Tuesday as originally scheduled, notes Daily News.

Judge Neil Tuchten, of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), has handed down an important judgment confirming the basis on which an attorney may bill a client, according to a report by Tony Beamish on the Moneyweb site. The case was brought by Cadac CEO Simon Nash and his company Midmacor Industries (Midmacor) against pension fund curator, Tony Mostert, his law firm AL Mostert & Co, the Financial Services Board (FSB), and the Registrar of Pension Funds.

Secrecy appears to be the watchword regarding a settlement reached via arbitration with regard to the R2bn penalty that Eskom imposed on Optimum Coal Mine, which is controlled by Gupta-owned Tegeta Resources. Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, is the other shareholder in Tegeta, notes a Moneyweb report.

A Cape Town lawyer accused of stealing millions from insolvent estates has lost his robes – which he may not have been legally entitled to in the first place, according to a Sunday Times report. The man, who goes by three names – Patel Muhamed, Mohamed Ismail and Muhamed Ismail Patel – could also soon find himself in the dock to answer to fraud charges. He is accused of contriving his qualifications by assuming the identity of lawyer Patel Muhamed, who died in 2006, and duping the High Court into admitting him as an attorney in 2011.

A last-minute court order barring members of the ANC Youth League from assaulting, intimidating or harassing anyone attending yesterday’s memorial service for struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada failed to stop the league from disrupting the Durban event, notes Daily News.

An urgent application before the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in which a man who said he was known as the ‘anointed one’ among Jehovah’s Witnesses and wanted the court to officially swear him in as the worldwide leader of the organisation has been removed from the roll as it did not meet the legal requirements for an urgent application.

Whilst the vast majority of state officials are competent and honest, and deserving of our full support, there will always be a few “bad eggs” to contend with. We’ve all had our run-ins with state bureaucracy, and where it causes you significant loss of any sort, ask your lawyer if you can sue. Act quickly; a 6 month time limit applies.

A routine roadblock has uncovered an off-the-books, multimillion-rand-a-month contract given to a former spy and ANC Youth League backer, who has even roped in President Jacob Zuma’s support. The Sunday Times says it has established, through his lawyer, that spy-turned-businessman Themba Dlomo had been scoring R2.5m a month since 2012 in an agreement according to which he leased top-end vehicles to the State Security Agency (SSA).

The City of Cape Town is claiming victory in its case against one of the construction companies involved in collusion in the building of Cape Town Stadium after the court dismissed WBHO Construction’s objection and ordered it to pay the city’s legal costs.

‘Can expropriation without compensation or expropriation against low or nominal compensation be justified simply because the expropriation is aimed at a constitutionally legitimate purpose such as land reform?’ In an analysis on the Centre for Constitutional Rights’ website, the centre’s Phephelaphi Dube says this question must be asked following statements by both President Jacob Zuma, as well as the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, that expropriation without compensation for land reform within the current framework of the property clause is possible.

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has succeeded for the first time in getting a court order declaring a director delinquent under the Companies Act. A Business Day report says Western Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis declared Owen Wienand, a director of Skyport Corporation Ltd – which is in liquidation – a delinquent director for seven years on the grounds of his ‘gross negligence’ and flagrant violation of his duties as a director.

Former members of the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) have turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to force the organisation to pay the R1m it owes them following a settlement relating to an unfair retrenchment Labour Court case that began in 2010 and ended last year. The Star reports Daniel Mokwatedi and James Tshabalala noted that the union had enlisted attorneys to represent them, and were successful in the matter.