Legal Articles and Guides

Solidarity plans to target the 15 properties of disgraced Eskom boss Brian Molefe to recover legal costs and Eskom’s unlawful R30.1m pension severance cheque, according to Rapport. Directly after the SCA dismissed his petition to appeal – his third unsuccessful attempt – the trade union delivered a bill of more than R700 000 for its legal fees.

Monthly repayments are continuing on former President Jacob Zuma's R7.8m loan from VBS Mutual Bank, meaning he will avoid legal action by the bank's liquidators, according to a Sunday Times report. This was revealed as liquidators from accounting firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo (SNG) Grant Thornton said that anyone who had borrowed money from the bank and had not begun paying it back, or defaulted on payments, would be in their firing line.

The Constitutional Court has ordered MTN to remove a 5m cellphone mast disguised as a chimney and described as ‘visually intrusive’ in the Cape Town suburb of Constantia.

Land occupiers from Tswelopele Extension 8 in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, are applying for an interdict in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to prevent the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) from evicting them, according to a GroundUp report.

A claim over an alleged fraudulent sale of a motor vehicle is set to return to court soon after the customer approached the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) again, in a move which could lead to civil action amounting to millions in damages against Wesbank.

In a judgment that TechCentral says has significant consequences for the telecommunications industry and homeowners, the SCA has overturned a lower court’s judgment, in favour of Telkom, ruling that Vodacom is entitled to access its rival’s ducts.

Private gated estates are entitled to draw up their own rules, including setting speed limits on internal roads and imposing ‘fines’ for exceeding them, the SCA ruled yesterday, according to a TimesLIVE report.

The lights in Makhanda will stay on for now after Eskom and Makhanda residents and businesses put together a High Court-sanctioned plan to force Makana municipality to pay its massive and overdue debt to the power utility. A Daily Dispatch report notes the Grahamstown Residents’ Association, Grahamstown Business Forum and individual businesses resorted to court for an urgent interdict to stop Eskom from implementing its threat to switch off the bulk electricity supply to Makana municipality which owes it more than R80m.

Disputes with neighbours take many forms, and they can quickly escalate into costly and expensive litigation. So nipping them in the bud will always be first prize, and when it comes to fights over construction activity – whether it be a whole new building or additions/alterations – a good place to start is with municipal approval of building plans. Without such approval, construction cannot as a general rule proceed.

In donating over 270ha valued at R26m to the Rustenburg municipality, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) hopes to change the conversation around land reform in SA, says a Business Day report. But a detractor said the move is a drop in the ocean if mining is to truly redress its legacy of displacement and dispossession in SA.

Raubex Construction – contracted by Eskom to build an office – has won an appeal in the SCA against Bryte Insurance, which refused a payout during construction. A Cape Times report says in 2013, Raubex secured the contract and subcontracted a portion of the works to Peak Star 133, trading as Dolphin Construction.

A Cape Town public school has been fined for operating unlawfully for 113 years. However, Oakhurst Girls Primary, in Rondebosch, will have no difficulty paying the penalty imposed by a City of Cape Town Planning Tribunal, as it has been set at R0.

The deputy mayor of Cape Town refused to meet housing activists who occupied a Cape Town golf course yesterday. Reclaim the City protesters demanded the presence of Ian Neilson at Rondebosch Golf Club, but he reportedly told TimesLIVE he would not respond to threats.

The Gardens Lodge Body Corporate has been found to have charged a complex unit owner a ‘patently exorbitant’ rate on outstanding levies and/or interest. A Cape Times report says Norbert Ketzer challenged the body corporate in the SCA on an amount of R233 383 – with interest at the rate of 34.8% per annum – compounded monthly for September 2012 until July 2014.

The owner of a cat who is adamant that it is unfair discrimination to rule that residents may keep dogs, but not cats, is having to defend his case in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria). A Pretoria News report notes there is discontent among the residents of Ireland Gardens in Centurion, who feel that cats pose a nuisance as they cannot be contained.