24 August 2010
CCT 05/10 [2010] ZACC 13
Tatiana Malachi v Cape Dance Academy International (Pty) Ltd
and Others
Constitutionality of Magistrates Courts
Act 32 of 1944. Section Section 30(3)
Judge
rights debt law for exotic dancer - 24 August
The
arrest of a Russian exotic dancer has led to the overturning
of parts of a debt law which allowed for the arrest of
people who owed money and were about to leave the country. The
Constitutional Court ruling concerned Tatiana Malachi, who
was brought to South Africa from Moldavia to work for the
Cape Dance Academy International and House of Rasputin
Properties. Mogoeng
also ordered the release from prison of anyone being held
for an unpaid debt.
- Times
Live website
See
also
:
Western
Cape High Court
7 January 2010
14830/09
[2010] ZAWCHC 1 ; 2010
(7) BCLR 678 (WCC) [2010] 3 All SA 86 (WCC)
Malachi v Cape Dance Academy Int (Pty) Ltd and Others
Debt detention law ruled unconstitutional -
8 January [2010]
Legalbrief website
[InfoUpdate
1 of 2010]
Road Accident Fund Amendment Act Case
|
Constitutional Court of South Africa
Law Society of South Africa and Others v Minister of Transport
and Another
CCT 38/10
Date of Hearing : 12 August 2010
Media Summary
The following media summary is provided to assist in reporting
this case and is not binding on the Constitutional Court or
any member of the Court.
On 12 August 2010, the Constitutional Court will hear argument
on whether a 2005 amendment to the Road Accident Fund Act,
1996, unjustifiably deprives road accident victims of some of
their constitutionally entrenched rights.
The
challenge is brought by way of an application for leave
to appeal against the judgment and order of the North
Gauteng High Court which dismissed the applicants’
constitutional challenge to the amendment. The
applicants include bodies representing lawyers, disabled
people and individual claimants. The application is
opposed by Road Accident Fund and the Minister of
Transport ("Minister").
The
applicants challenge certain provisions of the amendment
on the grounds of irrationality and arbitrariness. They
contend that the amendment limits the amount of
compensation for loss of earnings and support in
violation of the rights to property and security of a
person, and that it introduces a tariff for
non-emergency medical treatment determined by the
Minster in violation of the right to health care
services. They argue that road accident victims are
denied redress in that their residual common law claim
against those who perpetrated injuries has been
abolished in conflict with the right to access to
courts, and the right to an adequate remedy under the
Constitution.
The respondents argue that the application for leave to appeal
should be dismissed. They submit that the limited
compensation for loss of earnings and support is neither
irrational nor does it violate their rights to property and
freedom and security of the person. The respondents say
that the tariff for non-emergency medical treatment determined
by the Minister is both rational and reasonable and does not
violate the right to have access to health care services.
In addition, victims of road accidents are not deprived of
their right to redress as contended for by the applicants.
However, should this Court grant the relief sought by the
applicants, the respondents ask that the declaration of
constitutional invalidity should be suspended for a period
ranging from one to two years. |
Road
accident fund act faces united opposition
- 11 August
Various associations are uniting to challenge parts of the Road
Accident Fund Amendment Act and will make their voices
heard in the Constitutional Court. - Times
Live website
Argument
against RAF capped : Concourt - 12 August
A damages cap set at R160 000 from the Road Accident Fund
was "irrational" and infringed on the rights of
the victims of road accidents, the Constitutional Court
heard on Thursday. Counsel Geoff Budlender said that the cap
"causes enormous effect for all for a two percent
saving of the fund". He said that the compensation
which the RAF would be saving only amounted to two percent
of its expenses. - The
Sunday Independent website
Court
hears arguments on Road Accident Fund - 13 August
The Constitutional Court heard arguments on Thursday on
changes to the Road Accident Fund that will cap payments to
the victims of road accidents at R165 000. The changes made
by Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele will also prevent
victims from suing individuals in private litigation. - IOL
website
Top
court weighs challenges to Road Accident Fund changes -
13 August
The Constitutional Court yesterday weighed arguments by
motor accident victims seeking to have amendments to the
Road Accident Fund Act declared unconstitutional, against
the case of those from the government that the amendments
were for the good. The three amendments to the RAF Amendment
Act of 2005 facing a constitutional challenge were the
abolition of a common law right to sue for damages from the
offending party ; the capping of annual loss of income to
R160 000 a year, regardless of what a person previously
earned ; and the setting of public sector tariffs for
medical treatment for victims. - Business
Day website
Keyphrases :
Advocate Geoff Budlender SC for the South African
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett SC for the Law Society of South
Africa, the Quadpara Association of SA, the National Council
for Persons with Physical Disabilities and six accident
victims
Advocate Wim Trengove SC for the Minister of Transport
Case
over alleged empowerment fraud in Constitutional Court
- 11 August
A company accused of misrepresenting its black economic
empowerment status to win tenders in the Western Cape, argued
yesterday in the Constitutional Court that it could not be
subject to action by the City of Cape Town without due
process. Tricom Africa, which supplies and instals mechanical
equipment for water and sewerage treatment works, argued that
regulation 15 of the Preferential Procurement Regulations of
2001 does not give the objecting party a right to act on its
side of a dispute before a finding is made. - allAfrica
website
See :
Constitutional
Court Media Summary of this case
CCT 34/10
Viking Pony Africa Pumps (Pty) Ltd trading as Tricom Africa v
Hidro-Tech Systems (Pty) Ltd and Another
Date of hearing : 10 August 2010
No decision
in ailing miner case
- 18 August
The Constitutional Court yesterday heard arguments on whether
one of the two systems of compensation given to mine workers
who contracted diseases in mines offered less benefits than
the other scheme. The court heard an application by Thembekile
Mankayi, a former mine worker who wants to sue his former
employer AngloGold Ashanti for R2,6m. He says the mine has a
common-law duty to care for him. - allAfrica
website
See :
Constitutional
Court Media Summary of this case
CCT 40/10
Mankayi v AngloGold Ashanti Ltd
Date of hearing : 17 August 2010
Absa
rejects biased judge claim - 2 August
Absa has rejected the possibility of prejudice on the part of
an appeal judge and denies it has any liability towards Rico
Bernert in its heads of argument on the matter filed in the
Constitutional Court. - Legalbrief
website
Top court
hears fear of bias complaint
- 20 August
A businessman who took 39 days to complain about his fear of
bias by the Supreme Court of Appeal judges who heard his case
told the Constitutional Court yesterday that the complaint
might have been an exercise in futility if the case had gone
in his favour. He complained only after the Supreme Court of
Appeal found against him. - allAfrica
website
See :
Constitutional
Court Media Summary of this case
CCT 37/10
Bernert v Absa Bank (Pty) Ltd
Date of hearing : 19 August 2010
For
a history of this topic in InfoUpdate, see http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGCM_enZA340&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Bernert+site:.lawlibrary.co.za
Is doctoring a picture of your deputy headmaster defamatory? -
25 August
The Constitutional Court will hear argument on Thursday on
whether a schoolboy prank - involving the doctored photograph
of a deputy headmaster - can be considered defamation.
According to the heads of argument, Pretoria schoolboy Hennie
Le Roux got the idea while watching an episode of South Park
in 2006 in which a character digitally superimposed a picture
of himself on that of a bodybuilder.
Concerned that he would be seen as a person who masturbated in
public, had low morals, was guilty of indecent exposure, was
in a homosexual relationship and was a homosexual, deputy
headmaster Louis Dey laid a claim for R600 000 for defamation.
The High Court in Pretoria found that the image ridiculed his
moral values and disrespected him. It awarded him R45 000 in
damages. The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the ruling,
finding that "defamation is in the first instance an
affront to a person's dignity, which is aggravated by
publication". - Times Live website
Keyphrases :
Christian Gildenhuys
Christo Bekker
Freedom of Expression Institute
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Restorative Justice Centre
Transkei
gun law case not over yet - 6 August
The
Constitutional Court yesterday refused to confirm the
unconstitutionality of a law that applied only in the former
Transkei, saying the high court that heard the case did not
declare the provisions of section 4 of the Dangerous Weapons
Act (Transkei) as unconstitutional. Instead
the high court had declared the "applicability" of
the section to be unconstitutional. - allAfrica
website
See
:
5
August 2010
CCT
81/09 [2010] ZACC 12
Thunzi and Others v S
Keyphrase :
Transkei. Dangerous Weapons Act