Professional Update
A
monthly newsletter for KZN Attorneys from the Kwazulu-Natal Law Society

12 June 2009

This professional service draws attention to current and important items of news
 and members are directed to the hosts' websites

InfoUpdate 12 of 2009
Recent Judgments

Electronic copies of this information may be obtained from our librarians at help@lawlibrary.co.za or click on the underlined hyperlink where relevant

North Gauteng High Court (previously Transvaal Provincial Division) - http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/ ; Court rolls at http://www.saflii.org/blog/?page_id=79

19 June 2009
20762/2006 [2009] ZAGPPHC 90
Bonfiglio v ATB Chartered Accountants (SA)

18 June 2009
A740/2008 [2009] ZAGPPHC 89
McCain Frozen Foods (Pty) Limited v Creighton

18 June 2009
18352/07 [2009] ZAGPPHC 88
Liebenberg v Minister of Safety and Security and Another

17 June 2009
32201/05 [2009] ZAGPPHC 93 ; 32786/05 [2009] ZAGPPHC 87
Vosloo v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and Another ; Kenny v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and Others

10 June 2009
10125/2008 [2009] ZAGPPHC 86
Zelenyuk v Avnit

9 June 2009
A534/08 [2009] ZAGPPHC 84
Mokalaka v S

2 June 2009
594/09 [2009] ZAGPPHC 81
Wessels v Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development and Others

1 June 2009
20738/06 [2009] ZAGPPHC 85
Deli Chicken (Pty) Ltd v Van Den Heever NNO

29 May 2009
58485/2008 [2009] ZAGPPHC 82
J V V v J V V

29 May 2009
A440/2007 [2009] ZAGPPHC 79
Smit v Willers

29 May 2009
30762/2006 [2009] ZAGPPHC 78
Takalani v Booyens Du Preez & Boshoff Inc

29 May 2009
31134/2008 [2009] ZAGPPHC 77
J V R v J V R

28 May 2009
21736/06 [2009] ZAGPPHC 80
Cronje v Lid van die Uitvoerende Raad Vervoer Paaie en Instandhouding Gauteng Regering

Return my PC : prisoner - 29 May
A convicted murderer serving a life sentence at C-Max in Pretoria has gone to court to compel prison authorities to return his computer so he can continue his studies. Maxwell Nguyuza took the Department of Correctional Services to the Gauteng North high court in Pretoria on April 14 2009. The court ruled in his favour but the department is appealing. Manelisi Wolela of correctional services yesterday said the comput
er had been confiscated and that prison head Sydney Magaga should not have returned it. - Sowetan website

Court wrangle over property rates double bill - 23 June
A Wierda Park resident turned to the Pretoria High Court after the Tshwane Metro Council apparently seized R200 he had paid for electricity towards his outstanding double billed property rates account. Hermanus Jacobs said in papers before the Pretoria High Court that on June 11 he went to his local supermarket to buy a voucher for his prepaid electricity meter. He handed R200 to the cashier to pay. She returned without the voucher and told him the council had refused to sell him electricity. "I asked her to return my R200. She said she could not as the council had automatically used my money on my so-called arrears". - IOL website

ICASA councillor struck Vodacom deal - 23 June
Sources allege a deal was struck between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) and a senior ICASA councillor to persuade the telecommunications authority to prevent Vodacom's listing. The sources are a person close to ICASA's council, and a senior government official. In terms of the deal, the councillor, whose name is known to ITWeb, was to persuade the rest of the ICASA council to support Cosatu's court application, announced on 16 May, to prevent Vodacom's R22 billion JSE listing. In exchange, Cosatu would get the ruling African National Congress (ANC) parliamentary caucus to support the reappointment of the councillor. - Moneyweb website

DA probing Icasa bid to block Vodacom's JSE listing - 23 June
Investigations into why Vodacom's R80bn listing was almost scuppered by the industry regulator are continuing, with Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dene Smuts asking questions in Parliament about alleged corruption and interference. Smuts has asked Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande - as secretary-general of the South African Communist Party (SACP) - whether he personally influenced the attempt to block Vodacom's listing. - Business Day website

See also :
17 May 2009
26557/09 [2009] ZAGPPHC 76
COSATU v Telkom SA Ltd and Others
The judgment giving permission to Vodacom to list on the JSE
[InfoUpdate 11 of 2009]

Gun law challenged in court - 24 June
The SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association has asked the High Court in Pretoria to extend the deadline for the renewal of gun licences, reports said today. SABC radio news reported that the association launched an urgent bid requesting an extension of the implementation of the new Firearms Control Act which comes into effect on July 1, 2009. Lawyer Bertus Bergenthuin told the court the government was unable to deal with the administrative load brought upon by the new legislation. He said the State only managed to deal with half of the 700 000 applications for competency certificates to own a firearm in the past five years, Beeld newspaper reported. He argued that the applicants' right to administrative fairness was being infringed upon by unfair and illogical regulations. - The Times website

State warns against altering gun law - 24 June
It would be an "exceptionally dangerous thing" to upset new firearms legislation at this late stage, the High Court in Pretoria heard today. Counsel for the minister of police, Pat Ellis SC, argued that the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association was in effect asking the court to amend an Act of Parliament, pending the finalisation of their application to have certain sections of the Firearms Control Act declared unconstitutional. The Association applied for an urgent interim interdict, declaring that all licences of firearms obtained under 1969 firearms legislation remain valid until the outcome of their constitutional application. - The Times website

Gun owners get reprieve - 26 June
More than one million South African firearm owners who have not yet re-applied for their licences were given temporary reprieve by the High Court in Pretoria on Friday. Judge Bill Prinsloo granted an interim interdict to the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association, declaring that firearm licences obtained under the old Arms and Ammunition Act will be deemed valid for the time being. The interim order will remain in effect pending the final outcome of the association's application to have certain sections of the new Firearms Control Act declared unconstitutional. - IOL website

Gun dealer granted urgent interdict - 25 June
A Randburg firearms dealer has obtained an urgent interdict to force Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to come up with a plan on how he should deal with firearms entrusted to him by members of the public. Leon le Roux of Randburg Firearms was also granted a stay of any immediate police action against him. He turned to the High Court in Pretoria for help, saying he feared he might be arrested at any moment for contravening the new Firearms Control Act, despite his continued pleas to the police for assistance. - IOL website

'Advocate Barbie' Case

Barbie fugitive nabbed - 14 June
Dirk Prinsloo, one of South Africa's most wanted criminals, has been arrested in Belarus in Eastern Europe following an attempted bank robbery. Prinsloo jumped bail more than three years ago while standing trial with his ex-fiancee Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, after the Pretoria High Court had granted him permission to travel to Russia. This prompted a worldwide search for the man accused of a series of sex crimes in South Africa and who became one of the world's 130 most wanted criminals. In court, Visser has denied guilt on 14 charges ranging from rape and soliciting minors to commit indecent acts to manufacturing child pornography. Her trial is set to resume tomorrow after it was postponed in March. - IOL website

Barbie's boyfriend is in jail - 15 June
South African police and prosecutors are determined that the country's most high-profile international fugitive, alleged child porn manufacturer and paedophile Dirk Prinsloo, will never again escape their clutches. Prinsloo was arrested in Belarus on Friday after allegedly trying to rob a bank. The former lover of Cezanne Visser, known as "Advocate Barbie", with whom he was on bail and on trial for sex crimes before fleeing to Russia in 2006, was arrested in the eastern European country and will stand trial there. If convicted, he will serve jail time in Belarus before being extradited to South Africa. - The Times website

14 June 2009
Department of Justice seeks Prinsloo's extradition
SA Government Information website

Prinsloo's desperate life on the run - 21 June
Alleged paedophile and bank robber Dirk Prinsloo led an itinerant life in the three years he was on the run from Interpol. Prinsloo, who skipped bail in 2005 during a court-approved business trip to Russia while on trial for alleged sex crimes in Pretoria, apparently regularly travelled between the Russian capital, Moscow, Belarus, Latvia, New Zealand and Australia. - IOL website

Judge calls time on Advocate Barbie's trial - 19 June
The sex trial of Cezanne Visser, better known as Advocate Barbie, is drawing to a close, with the parties expected to deliver their final arguments by August and judgment expected by October 6. - IOL website

Presidential Pardons

Motlanthe pardon nearly freed racist killers - 9 June
Four Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging members who went on an "unashamedly racist" rampage against black people at Kuruman in the Northern Cape in 1995 would have been freed from prison after serving only two years – if former president Kgalema Motlanthe had got his way. The names of Ryan Allbut, Alexander George Whitehead, Arend Christian de Waal and Hans Jacob Wessels appear on a list of 120 people that Motlanthe tried to pardon last month, before he was prevented by a coalition of victims’ families and six civil society organisations. - Sowetan website

Vlok in line for pardon? - 7 June
Former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok is among 121 people recommended for a presidential pardon, according to a civil society coalition that had legally challenged the granting of special pardons without the consultation of victims. Vlok's name appears on a list of prisoners and convicted persons compiled by the pardons reference group set up by Thabo Mbeki to consider the applications and make recommendations to the presidency. The reference group considered more than 2 300 applications. The apartheid-era police minister received a suspended sentence in 2007 for his role in the plot to kill Reverend Frank Chikane, director-general in the presidency. - IOL website

No Motlanthe pardons for AWB - 10 June
The presidency on Wednesday denied that former president Kgalema Motlanthe nearly freed four members of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) with presidential pardons. Responding to the claims, presidential spokesperson Thabo Masebe said on Wednesday that it was "imperative" that the procedure of presidential pardons be set out. - Mail & Guardian website

See also :
29 April 2009
15320/09 [2009] ZAGPPHC 35
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society