Legal Articles and Guides
Whether you are young or old, healthy or ill, single or attached, you should have a Will. Without one, you die “intestate”, which means you forfeit your right to decide who inherits what, who administers and distributes your estate, and who looks after your children and their money. You owe it to your loved ones to spare them the inevitable financial and personal ri
Did you know that even as the owner of a house, you could still be evicted from it as an “unlawful occupier”? That could happen if, to take one example from a recent Supreme Court of Appeal matter, you give someone else a right of habitation. But why, you may ask, would you do that?
Seven luxury farms given to the Mashishimane tribe after a land claim will be auctioned this week to pay the legal fees due to Arnold Pistorius, uncle of Oscar Pistorius, and two of his business partners, claims Rapport. The farms belonged to Gamevest, a company owned by Pistorius and two others, when they were sold to the government to meet a land claim.
The Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, Cape Town, has distanced itself from a court order granted to evict 28 families from a row of houses in nearby Bromwell Street, says a Cape Times report. One of the directors of Standard Mills, which owns the Old Biscuit Mill, said the company had no interest in evicting families from Woodstock and that the action went against their ethos.
A Cape Town conveyancer implicated in an alleged fraud case of more than R1m has said he will oppose a High Court ruling to pay back the money, notes a Cape Times report. The Western Cape High Court instructed the Mellow Wood Trust " appointed by the court " to finalise the transfer of property in the alleged fraud case involving attorney Garon Kavin Nortje.
A nature conservation authority"s right to police "buffer zones" around parks was confirmed in a ground-breaking decision last week, says a Sunday Tribune report. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority objected to a developer building holiday homes on a buffer zone on the banks of Mgoboseleni Lake because it did not have necessary permission for building in that area.
With more conflict over university fees on the horizon, Rapport says not a single student has been successfully prosecuted for the damages of more than R460m caused to universities in the first round of #FeesMustFall protests. Although a handful of universities started disciplinary proceedings, no criminal prosecution is under way for arsonists and no prosecutions for other crimes such as malicious damage to property have been concluded.
A judge hearing a billion-rand South Coast land claim cracked the whip yesterday, banning an aggressive troublemaker " a disbarred attorney " from her courtroom and ordering community representatives to publicly apologise to their lawyers for making "racial slurs" against them, says a report in The Mercury, And in an attempt to finalise the matter " which involves 1 800ha of land and has been dragging on for 16 years " Land Claims Judge Shenaaz Meer ordered both sides to meet next week and "be realistic" in their negotiations.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has lodged an urgent application to declare that Rural Development and Land Reforms Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, is in contempt of a court order, says a Cape Times report.
You buy a plot in a residential development and the developer agrees to build you a house to stated specifications and plans. You pay in full for the plot and it is transferred into your name. All good so far. But then you fall out with the developer over the costs, finishes and other specs for the building work. What happens now? A High Court case illustrating a particular danger for both developers and buyers revolved around these rather unusual facts.
You challenge the accuracy of a services account from your local municipality, thus: “Your meter must be wrong, no way was my consumption that high”. The reply: “We’ve tested the meter and it works fine. Pay up or face disconnection”. Off to court you go. Can you “fight city hall” and who has to prove what? There’s good news here for consumers in a recent High Court decision in Euphorbia (Pty) Ltd t/a Gallagher Estates v City of Johannesburg dealing with just such a situation.
In a judgment that damned Parliament for its failure to facilitate public participation in its legislative process, the Constitutional Court yesterday (Thursday) declared invalid in its entirety the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act, notes Daily News. ‘The NCOP public participation process was unreasonable and thus constitutionally invalid‚’ Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga found in a unanimous judgment. According to a TimesLIVE report, the court pointed out that provinces gave out notices just days before hearings‚ which were held only in certain municipalities and excluded many of those affected.
The battle between the Gupta family and irate residents of Saxonwold over an ‘illegally built’ mansion that was allegedly devaluing the upmarket Johannesburg suburb resumed this week, with City of Johannesburg officials stepping in to conduct their own inspections. The Mercury reports residents want the properties demolished as they are in contravention of the town planning scheme. Joining city officials during the inspection of the property was a lawyer representing the Gupta family, and urban planner Craig Pretorius, representing residents belonging to the Saxonwold and Parkwood Residents Association of Johannesburg (Sapra).
The signing of the contentious Expropriation Bill into law is on hold following concern over the process followed by Parliament in passing the Bill. President Jacob Zuma has asked the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces to look into the process followed in the light of various petitions received by his office.
The Mthatha High Court has dismissed the appeal of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who had laid claim to the Qunu home of former President Nelson Mandela. The court also ordered Madikizela-Mandela to pay the cost of the application, according to a report on The Citizen site. She filed an appeal in April after losing an earlier bid to lay claim to Madiba’s Qunu home in the Eastern Cape. Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer Mvuzo Notyesi reportedly said they would now petition the SCA.
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