18 June
2009
CCT 33/09 [2009] ZACC 17
Strategic Liquor Services v Mvumbi, T M O and Others
Justice
(and fairness) delayed is justice denied - 19 June
Yesterday the Constitutional Court referred to the "troubling
features" of a case when disallowing an employer's appeal
against an order of 10 months compensation awarded to a
constructively dismissed employee on 19 January 2005. The employer's
application to review that award was only set down for hearing two
years later. After further delays the Labour Appeal Court refused
to grant leave to appeal on 8 December 2008 without providing any
reasons. The Supreme Court of Appeal did deal with a
petition speedily but refused leave to appeal. - Giles
Files blog
10 June
2009
CCT
22/08 [2009] ZACC 16
Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha
Homes and Others
Concourt
: State must help Joe Slovo evictees - 10 June
The Constitutional Court will allow the eviction of 20 000 shack
dwellers in Cape Town but ruled on Wednesday that they must be
given alternative housing. The eviction of residents of the Joe
Slovo informal settlement on the Cape Flats cannot happen without
them receiving proper, alternative housing, five judges said in a
unanimous decision. "The appeal succeeds in part and is
dismissed in part," reads the judgment handed down in the
Constitutional Court. - IOL
website
Slovo
eviction ruling 'groundbreaking' - 10 June
A Constitutional Court order allowing the eviction of 20 000 shack
dwellers under some strict conditions was
"groundbreaking", the human settlements department said
today. - The
Times website
12
June 2009
Statement
by the Director-General of Human Settlements on Joe Slovo
residents’ application against temporary relocation to delft in
Cape Town
SA
Government Information website
A
(partial) victory for Joe Slovo residents - 10 June
The Constitutional Court today granted an order for the eviction
of Joe Slovo residents to far off Delft to facilitate the building
of houses as part of the N2 Gateway Project. The fact that the
court ordered the removal of people from their homes where they
have lived for the past 15 years, will rightly be harshly
criticised. It has failed to display the kind of "grace and
compassion" one would expect of the self-styled
champion of the vulnerable and dispossessed. - Pierre de Vos
on the Constitutionally
Speaking blog
Joe
Slovo case : the good, the bad and the (mostly) unstated
- 14 June
The Constitutional Court judgment ordering the eviction of the
more than 4000 families living in the Joe Slovo Settlement has
been lauded by some because it partly reverses a High Court
judgment of Judge President John Hlophe which would have left 20
000 people languishing in far off Delft with no prospect to
return. The five separate judgments handed down by the
Constitutional Court (running over 200 pages) is indeed a vast
improvement on the lower court effort. The Constitutional Court
judgment ordering the eviction of the more than 4000 families
living in the Joe Slovo Settlement has been lauded by some because
it partly reverses a High Court judgment of Judge President John
Hlophe which would have left 20 000 people languishing in far off
Delft with no prospect to return. The five separate judgments
handed down by the Constitutional Court (running over 200 pages)
is indeed a vast improvement on the lower court effort. - Pierre
de Vos on the Constitutionally
Speaking blog
Listen
to the shack-dwellers - 25 June
Transit camps, as they were known during apartheid, were used in
the Fifties for the screening, segregation and repatriation of
unwanted black urbanites. And in the ambiguous late apartheid
years, progressive lawyers used transit camp legislation to
prevent the removal of people to distant sites and service areas.
Today, recent court cases have raised the question : do transit
camps qualify as "adequate alternative accommodation" as
required by post-apartheid law? - Mail
& Guardian website
See
also : South
Africa. Cape Town. R10-million to stop city land invasions
5 June
2009
CCT 67/08 [2008] ZACC 15
Von Abo v President of the Republic of South Africa
|
According
to section 172(2)(a) of the Constitution
"The Supreme Court of Appeal, a High Court or a court
of similar status may make an order concerning the
constitutional validity of an Act of Parliament, a
provincial Act or any conduct of the President, but an
order of constitutional invalidity has no force unless it
is confirmed by the Constitutional Court".
In the
matter of Von Abo v
Government of the RSA & others [2009] JOL 23707
(CC), where judgment was handed down in the Constitutional
Court this morning, the applicant sought confirmation of
and order made by the South Gauteng High Court, against
the President of the Republic of South Africa, for his
failure to consider and decide upon a request by the
applicant for proper protection against the violation of
his property rights by the Government of Zimbabwe,
properly. The applicant contended that the president's
conduct was inconsistent with the Constitution, and
invalid.
In its
judgment, the court dealt with the following :
"a)
whether the order of the High Court that the conduct of
the President is inconsistent with the Constitution and
invalid, is subject to confirmation by this Court in terms
of section 172(2)(a) of the Constitution.
b)
if this Court were to find that the order of the High
Court is not subject to confirmation what order should
this Court make in relation to costs
;
c)
if
this Court were to find that the order of the High Court
is not subject to confirmation what order should this
Court make regarding its own order made on 4 November 2008
regarding the confidentiality of certain documents claimed
on behalf of the respondents".
Source : LexisNexis |
Concourt
declines order against president - 5 June
The Constitutional Court on Friday declined to confirm an order
that would have made the president responsible for a farmer's
struggle to get diplomatic protection while the Zimbabwe
government seized his land. The case relates to South African
businessman Crawford von Abo's bid to get a Pretoria High Court
judgment confirmed that the president be held responsible for the
government's failure to give him diplomatic protection during
Zimbabwe's controversial land seizure programme. Von Abo, a South
African citizen, had lost farms and assets during the Zimbabwe
government's policy of seizing land from white farmers to
redistribute among black Zimbabweans. - IOL
website
President
'not responsible for diplomatic protection' - 8 June
The Constitutional Court has declined to confirm a high court
order that former president Thabo Mbeki intervene on behalf of a
local businessman whose farms were seized by the Zimbabwean
government 12 years ago. Crawford von Abo should not have
approached the Constitutional Court because the conduct he
complained about did not concern SA's president, Deputy Chief
Justice Dikgang Moseneke said on Friday. Diplomatic protection was
the responsibility of the government as a whole, or of the foreign
affairs minister, and not of the president, said Moseneke. - allAfrica
website
GM
should not just be dismissed, nor just accepted - 16
June
After a protracted court battle of seven years, a small South
African environmental organisation won a major legal victory
against the multinational agri-chemical and seed giant Monsanto.
In a judgment in South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional
Court, this month, Judge Albie Sachs overturned a previous ruling
by a High Court judge that Biowatch had to pay the costs of
Monsanto and the government's department of agriculture. This
judgment followed after a number of court cases which started in
2002 when Biowatch launched court proceedings in the High Court
demanding access to information about genetically modified (GM)
crops produced by Monsanto. Biowatch is a non-profit organisation
that campaigns for sustainable agricultural practices. - Inter
Press Service website
State
has to pay Biowatch costs after all - 4 June
The Constitutional Court yesterday ordered three government
bodies responsible for monitoring the development of genetically
modified organisms to pay the costs of nongovernmental
organisation Biowatch in its 2005 high court application. The
judgment deals with the proper approach that courts should adopt
when making costs awards in constitutional litigation. It also
set an important precedent for those promoting the public
interest, allowing them to litigate to gain their rights without
necessarily fearing the "chilling effect" of costs
orders against them, Biowatch director Rose Williams said. - Business
Day website
See
:
3 June 2009
80/08
The Trustees for the time being of the Biowatch Trust v The
Registrar, Genetic Resources, The Executive Council for
Genetically Modified Organisms, The Minister for Agriculture,
Monsanto South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Stoneville Pedigreed Seed
Company and D&PL SA South Africa Inc (the Centre for Child
Law, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for Applied Legal
Studies as amici curiae)
Tenants
in the dark approach top court - 17 June
Residents of a building in Ennerdale, Johannesburg, who have been
without electricity since July last year after City Power
disconnected the supply because the building’s owner was R400
000 in arrears, have approached the Constitutional Court for
relief. The residents contend that the right of access to housing
included, at least in an urban setting, the right of access to
electricity as well as the right to human dignity. Before the
electricity was cut off, the residents had been paying their
electricity bills to the landlord as part of their rental accounts
and everybody had been up to date. The residents asked the South
Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg for an order that it was
unlawful for City Power to disconnect electricity to the building
without giving the occupants adequate notice and an opportunity to
make representations. - Business
Day website
Verskille
oor dumping in SA draai in hof - 17 June
'n Hofgeding wat volgens die hofstukke Suid-Afrika se
internasionale handelsverpligtinge in verband met dumping ernstig
in die gedrang kan bring, het sy pad tot in die konstitusionele
hof gevind. In die een hoek veg Suid-Afrika se Kommissie vir
Internasionale Handelsadministrasie (Itac). Sy opponent is een van
die grootste vervaardigers van staaltouprodukte in Suid-Afrika,
die maatskappy Scaw South Africa. - Sake24
website
Trade
Commission struggles to find feet as it loses court battle
- 26 May
The International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) has
suffered another blow in court, losing an appeal against it by
Scaw Metals, which challenged a decision to have antidumping
duties terminated on fishing and mining rope. An interdict had
already been granted against Itac by the North Gauteng High Court
in Pretoria, preventing the commission from forwarding a
recommendation to the trade and industry minister to terminate the
antidumping duties. Itac opted to appeal the decision but Judge
Eberhard Bertelsmann last week again found against the trade body,
and dismissed its actions in the case as "irrational and
unreasonable" and "a misdirection". Itac has lost
at least six cases in the past 18 months, with several more
pending against it, and the interdict is the latest in a string of
court challenges over what trade lawyers say were poor trade
remedy decisions. - Business
Day website
Language
policy 'discriminates' - 24 June
The governing body's preservation of the Afrikaans language policy
at Hoërskool Ermelo at all costs demonstrated that it intended to
preserve the school exclusively for Afrikaners, head of the
Mpumalanga education department Monwabisi Tywakadi has said in his
application to the Constitutional Court. The department has
appealed against a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment in March that
the governing body, and not the education department, had
exclusive power to determine the language policy of an existing
school. - allAfrica
website
See
also :
Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
27 March 2009
219/2008
[2009] ZASCA 22 ; 2009 (3) SA 422 (SCA)
Hoërskool Ermelo and Another v Head of Department of
Education : Mpumalanga and Others
See
also :
Government
and Legislation. Draft State
Liability Bill