Many South African judges are notoriously prickly about the need to undergo further judicial education. Despite the fact that Parliament passed the South African Judicial Education Institute Act in 2008, the Institute has not yet trained any judges or aspirant judges and it is unclear when it will start its work in earnest. Yet most [...]
Posts under ‘Constitutional Court’
Further thoughts on polygamy
An alert reader of this Blog emailed to ask whether clauses 3(2) and 10(1) of The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (Act no 120 of 1998) may not be unconstitutional because these provisions only allow men who marry in terms of customary law to marry more than one spouse.
It seems to me contradictory in nature, [...]
Moseneke story still no scandal
The Mail & Guardian continues its “expose” of the alleged dubious business dealings of Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke in their paper this week. It claims that “the Moseneke family” has Congolese Oil Rights which were facilitated by “an alleged fraudster extraordinaire”, stating that:
Nozi Mwamba, the facilitator who helped pave the way for the Moseneke [...]
Moseneke, the M&G and judicial ethics
The Mail & Guardian published an article and editorial on Friday in which it exposed the fact that Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke owned 18% of a company (via a family trust) that rents buildings to various government departments and is hoping to do big business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As someone who [...]
“Afrikaners is (not) plesierig”?
Hoërskool Ermelo has on average about 22 learners in a classroom. At the nearby Lindile School, 62 learners are on average crammed into one classroom. Until now the school’s medium of instruction was Afrikaans and the school was so determined to keep things this way that it challenged the lawfulness of a decision by the [...]
Water is life (but life is cheap)
“Water is life… Without it, we will die,” writes justice Kate O’Regan in the Constitutional Court judgment of Mazibuko and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others, handed down late last week. But if water is life, do the lives of poor people in Soweto count for less than, say, the lives of rich people [...]
Constitutional Court tries to fix its own balls-up
It’s not only State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel that makes “mistakes” (otherwise known as a balls-up). Today the Constitutional Court handed down judgment in the case of Gcaba v Minister of Safety and Security, in effect overturning or “clarifying” previous judgments handed down in Fredericks (in 2002) and Chirwa (in 2007) without actually saying so explicitly.
This [...]
Well done, ANC. Now get rid of Travelgate crooks
The ANC has asked Parliament to investigate the allegations against Loyiso Mpumlwana, who was nominated by the National Assembly as a full time commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission. Mpumlwana was fired from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after it was discovered that he defrauded the TRC. He was only one of four [...]
JSC, Minister doth protest too much
When Justice Minister Jeff Radebe (that guy who masterminded the scandalous decision of the JSC not to investigate the complaints of gross misconduct against John Hlophe because it feared that a real investigation would have to lead to the impeachment of Hlophe) gave a speech yesterday at the farewell for five justices of the Constitutional [...]
Not a bad list – all things considered
When a journalist phoned me late yesterday afternoon and told me that Judge President John Hlophe did not make it on to the list of seven names sent to President Jacob Zuma by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) for possible appointment to the four vacancies on the Constitutional Court, I felt like quoting my father when [...]
