Legal Articles and Guides

The Western Cape High Court yesterday granted an interim interdict to ensure that operations at UCT continue, says a News24 report. Vice-Chancellor Max Price said the institution would have preferred not to have pursued this route, but that the actions of some of the protesters left them ‘no other option’.

The sooner we exit the International Criminal Court ICC (ICC) the better. It is time to reject the duality of the UN Security Council, which finds expression, at least in part, through the ICC. ‘It is now time to forge a new more equitable and fair international accountability and legal system,’ says International relations scholar Oscar van Heerden, in an analysis on the Daily Maverick site. He outlines a number of reasons for his support of SA’s withdrawal from the ICC.

A majority ruling of the Constitutional Court yesterday said the Merafong Local Municipality in Gauteng should have approached the courts to challenge a decision by then Minister of Water Affairs Buyelwa Sonjica forbidding it to levy a surcharge on water supplied to mines under its jurisdiction. Merafong municipality had approached the Constitutional Court to be allowed to levy a surcharge on water used by mines under its jurisdiction, says a TimesLIVE report.

Lawyer Jacques du Preez has swapped his black court robes for orange prison gear for stealing from a paralysed and mentally challenged client, says a TimesLIVE report. The Western Cape High Court thwarted his bid for freedom after he was found guilty on theft and fraud charges in the Oudtshoorn Regional Court recently. Du Preez sued the provincial Education Department for an Oudtshoorn man who was badly injured falling off a step ladder at school in 1999 after his teacher told him to paint rugby poles.

Motorcyclist Jan Harm Steenkamp (60) had a crash when he drove over a pothole on a provincial road outside Pretoria in May 2012, which resulted in one of his legs being amputated. The Star reports Steenkamp is claiming more than R4m in damages from the Gauteng roads and transport MEC – and has received the green light from the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to proceed with his claim, although it was launched late. Steenkamp said he had been in and out of hospital for months, and could consult with a lawyer only in 2014.

A Durban-based logistics company has been granted an interdict against a former manager who had allegedly been stealing clients for a competitor he was now working for, says a Daily News report. He had apparently quit the company citing family difficulties and that he intended leaving this field of work to relocate. KZN High Court (Durban) Judge Esther Steyn granted an order restraining the former employee from being involved in anything seen as being in competition with the business conducted by Avcres Transport, for six months.

The appeal against an interdict that prevented five 'Shackville' protesters from entering the University of Cape Town (UCT) property has been dismissed but the conditions of the interdict have been altered so that the five are now allowed on to campus, according to a GroundUp report. The five, Alex Hotz, Masixole Mlandu, Chumani Maxwele, Slovo Magida and Zola Shokane, who took the matter to the SCA, are now only interdicted and restrained from erecting any unauthorised structures on UCT’s premises, destroying, damaging or defacing any of UCT’s premises, and participating in, or inciting others to participate in, unlawful conduct or protest at UCT.

Lawsuits instituted against the KZN Department of Health in the 2015-16 financial year have reached R10bn. The department is being sued for medical negligence and failure to pay suppliers, according to a report in The Mercury. In 2013-14 complainants had gone to court to demand a total of R1bn from the department. It shot up to R4.09bn the next year and the figure for 2015-16 is R10.06bn.

Gauteng’s MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, facing a High Court claim over a botched operation carried out at a state hospital, launched a subsequently withdrawn defence described as ‘bizarre’ by leading legal commentator Carmel Rickard, notes Daily News. The State Attorney, in a written plea filed on behalf of the MEC, denied that (the MEC) owes a duty of care to the patient. The attorney noted there was no law in SA that ‘guarantees proper, sufficient and reasonable health services to citizens’.

Sanral believes there are ‘constitutional issues of great public importance’ at stake, if it is not allowed to toll sections of the N1 and N2 in the Winelands, notes a Cape Argus report. The agency is digging in its heels to proceed with the project by filing for leave to appeal the matter in the Constitutional Court. This is despite losing another round in the four-and-a-half year battle against the City of Cape Town in the SCA last month that found Sanral’s decision-making process to be flawed.

The so-called "SABC 8" are asking the Constitutional Court to order Parliament to probe its own decisions around recent events at the public broadcaster, according to a News24 report. The eight journalists, fired and then rehired by the SABC in September following a lengthy Labour Court battle, want the National Assembly to institute an inquiry into the various issues plaguing the broadcaster, including their firings.

While new proposed legislation would offer 10 days of parental leave and new leave provisions for parents who adopt or have children through surrogates, gender activists argue that all parents should have the same parental leave benefits. The Mercury reports the Labour Laws Amendment Bill is with Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Labour, which is considering submissions made last month by Sonke Gender Justice jointly with the Mosaic Training, Service and Healing Centre for Women, and by Cosatu.

The Western Cape High Court has dismissed Dave Woollam's case against four directors of Lewis Group, describing it as frivolous, vexatious and without merit. Judge Ashley Binns-Ward also awarded costs against Woollam, a director of Summit Financial Partners, says a BDlive report.

The SCA wants to hear oral arguments on why it should grant leave to appeal in the "spy tapes" case, says a BDlive report. President Jacob Zuma is asking the court to overturn a Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) judgment that found the decision in 2009 to drop corruption charges against him was irrational. Legalbrief notes the decision is seen as something of a reprieve for Zuma, whose legal team will now appear before its judges to argue why they should entertain the appeal.

Piet Booyse (69) who fell into an uncovered manhole three years ago and severely injured the right side of his body as well as his private parts is claiming R2.7m in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) from the Justice and Public Works Ministries, says a Pretoria News report.