Legal Articles and Guides

North-West University (NWU) has obtained a final order interdicting students at its Vaal campus from embarking on disruptive protests, says a TimesLIVE report. It had obtained a temporary interdict at the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on 22 September‚ a day after students protested for free education. Judge DS Fourie made the order final yesterday‚ as the 14 cited members of the student representative council (SRC) did not file papers opposing management's application.

A Pretoria specialist anaesthesiologist is facing two damages claims relating to a surgical procedure to sever nerve roots in the spinal cord to relieve patients of their severe headaches, but which allegedly left them with nerve damage, says a Pretoria News report. Dr Russel Raath, who practises in the Jacaranda Hospital, is facing a nearly R10m claim in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria).

A group of parents and students is planning to take legal action against the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) if it does not allow students to complete their 2016 academic year. According to a News24 report, the Concerned Association of Parents and Others for Tertiary Education at Universities was formed at a special meeting at the German Club in Port Elizabeth mid-week.

Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba says the High Court erred when it struck her from the roll of advocates, arguing it should have merely imposed a condition to ‘remove the cause of (her) unfitness’ to practise. According to a Beeld report, Jiba’s application for leave to appeal against the order of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in the matter brought by the General Council of the Bar listed several grounds.

A Vredehoek homeowner has lost his case in the SCA to scrap conditions imposed for the demolition of a building on his property which is older than 60 years, says a Cape Times report. The structure formed part of a national estate and was ‘worthy of protection as a heritage resource’, the court ruled. Property owner Peter Gees’ application for leave to appeal was also dismissed with costs by the SCA.

A Worcester financial adviser has been ordered to repay a retired teacher the R215 000 he invested and lost in a failed public property syndication scheme, says a report in Business Report. The Ombud for Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (Fais) Noluntu Bam ordered Audenberg Versekering Makelaars cc and/or Tobias van Zyl – a key individual of the cc – to repay Hannes Waterboer the money he invested on their advice in City Capital SA Property Holdings.

Disgruntled Caltex dealers are proceeding with plans to institute a class action suit against US oil giant Chevron Corporation, says a Business Day report. The retailers, who held a mass meeting to give an update on planned court action, are accusing the company of turning a blind eye to unethical business practices against dealers, some of whom have been trading under the Caltex brand for decades. The move comes as the local arm of Chevron is preparing to dispose of its SA shareholding.

A KZN North Coast homeowner faces a legal bill running into ‘many hundreds of thousands of rands’ after losing several court battles over levy arrears of only R8 800, says a report in The Mercury. The six-year dispute between the body corporate of Crystal Cove in La Mercy and pensioner Krishna Padachie ended last week when the SCA dismissed his final bid to overturn a ruling by an arbitrator that he owed the money.

SA company Trio End Street has been interdicted from using a fake BMW logo on its car rims and wheels, and thus infringing on the trade mark of the German company, says a report in The Star. The mother company of BMW SA – BMW AG – holds the trade mark to the logo. However, it emerged that Trio End Street, trading as Golden West Tyres & Wheels, was using the logo on its rims.

More than 1 500 informal traders in Johannesburg have filed a lawsuit of more than R120m against the City of Johannesburg for being evicted from their trading points three years ago, says a report in The Mercury. Through the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri), the informal traders filed papers in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) on behalf of 1 652 traders who were temporarily evicted from their places of business during Operation Clean Sweep in October 2013.

The Compensation Commissioner has approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on an urgent basis to stop the seizure and attachment of 14 of its 16 vehicles and 300 computers, Beeld reports. Judge Hennie de Vos set aside the warrant of execution obtained by Engela Denny Hennop and PH Projects Holdings after the Compensation Fund said it would have ‘catastrophic consequences’ as it would not be able to continue its work.

Moneyweb says it is a step closer to accessing the shareholder registers of the three companies that today own and manage the erstwhile Sharemax Investment Properties, in which more than 33 000 people (mostly elderly) invested R4.5bn. It says the Constitutional Court denied the directors of the three companies leave to appeal against an SCA ruling and ordered them to pay Moneyweb’s costs.

The legal battle over the R61m luxury flat development on Durban’s Berea is to be heard by the SCA on 1 November. The Mercury reports the court will have to decide whether or not to uphold last year’s judgment of KZN High Court (Durban) Judge Esther Steyn, in which she found that public notice rules had been flouted and subsequent rezoning of the Currie Road site was unlawful. While she ordered the partial demolition of the almost-completed building, if the SCA finds this to be correct practically it will mean the entire nine-storey development will have to be taken down because the alleged illegality relates not only to the height of the building but its ‘boundary to boundary’ footprint on the site.

A Zimbabwean man who was allegedly illegally arrested and detained by rogue police officers is suing the SAPS for R1m, says a report in The Star. Nathan Meda said Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Deliwe de Lange had failed to act on his 250-page dossier detailing the abuse and harassment he and his wife, Sherylie Tsungayi Ngorima, suffered at the hands of rogue policemen from the Elsburg police station in Germiston.

A R4 000-a-month domestic worker is taking her multimillionaire former boss to court for gender discrimination, according to a Sunday Times report. Nathan Lazarus, founder and chair of the Ram courier company, has already paid Nellie van Zyl R12 000 for unfair dismissal. But now the 56-year-old mother of six is taking him to the Equality Court, saying she suffered post-traumatic stress and depression after a confrontation with Lazarus’ son Michael.