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

KwaZulu-Natal High Court : Pietermaritzburg (previously Natal Provincial Division) http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAKZPHC/ ; Court rolls via http://www.lawlibrary.co.za/notice/highcourts/index.htm and http://www.saflii.org/blog/?page_id=190

12 June 2009
6550/08 [2009] ZAKZPHC 26
Hughes v Ridley and Others

9 June 2009
3853/06 [2009] ZAKZPHC 25
Singh v Road Accident Fund

8 June 2009
15209/08 [2009] ZAKZPHC 27
Maxwell v Holderness and Others

5 June 2009
AR 151/2009 [2009] ZAKZPHC 24
Seiti v Berlein and Another

1 June 2009
8684/08 [2009] ZAKZPHC 23
Stand 2436 PMB (Pty) Ltd v Takor

26 May 2009
AR 175/06 [2009] ZAKZPHC 22
Otto v S

Woman gets right to visit mother - 9 June
A Pietermaritzburg woman yesterday obtained an interim order by consent in the high court ordering her brother to allow her access to her 85-year-old mother on specified occasions, including her mother’s birthday on August 1, and every Saturday pending the finalisation of a dispute between the siblings. Argument in the case is to be heard on August 31. In terms of the interim order granted by Acting Judge Yoga Moodley yesterday, Yogendra Kumar Lalloo is directed to allow "free, uninterrupted and unsupervised" physical contact by his sister, Madhumati Jeena, with her mother, Diwari Ramjee Lalloo (known as Ba). Lalloo is also ordered to inform Jeena of any change in their mother’s health and to immediately inform her if and where she is hospitalised. In the event of her death, he is directed to allow Jeena access to her mother to perform the customary last rites in terms of Hindu tradition. In his reply, Lalloo suggests that considering that his family's "rights to privacy had been steadily eroded and are likely to continue to be eroded", they want to hand over custody of Ba to Jeena. - The Witness website

Pupil goes to court to fight matric battle - 12 June
Kyle Springate, a deaf matric pupil at Westville Boys High is taking on South Africa's education authorities in a court battle which he hopes will enable him, and other hearing impaired people, to take sign language as an official matric subject. With only months until his final examinations, his future is now bleak with word from the Education Department that sign language - a subject he has been studying with departmental blessing throughout high school - is not a recognised matric subject. With the backing of his mother, lawyers from Durban's Legal Resources Centre, the Deaf Federation of South Africa (DeafSA) and the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society, he has approached the Pietermaritzburg High Court for intervention. - Daily News website

Military base battle back in court - 12 June
The battle over the sale of the old Natal Command military base in Durban - which reached court in 2005 - has resumed in Pietermaritzburg High Court. A report in The Mercury says the eThekwini Municipality maintained that it had the right to sell the base and that the sale should not be set aside. Legal representatives of the municipality, the local government, housing and traditional affairs MEC, and Rinaldo Investments, owned by film-maker Anant Singh, were in court opposing an application brought by former gambling boss Sunny Gayadin to have the sale set aside. Gayadin brought the application on behalf of Giant Concerts, which is owned by his wife.  - Legalbrief website

See also :
Court orders Gayadin millions held in trust - 15 March 2002
In another court on Tuesday, Gayadin and a close corporation admitted liability for damage to the historic Buchanan Street swimming pool in Pietermaritzburg. The pool was closed for six months when its buildings were damaged by illegal demolition of a building ordered by Gayadin. - IOL website

Heritage buildings lost - 4 April 2004
Two years ago, businessman Sunny Gayadin was fined R5 000, the highest fine ever paid in the province, after pleading guilty to pulling down a Victorian building in Pietermaritzburg. - Rootsweb website

Sizwe is now Shembe leader - 18 June
A Pietermaritzburg high court judgment has ended a 32- year-old feud and hostilities over the rightful leader of the Shembe church. The court ruled last week that Isaiah Shembe's descendant, Sizwe Mudliwamafa Shembe, is the leader of the church's ecclesiastical endowment trust. He was also accorded the status of titular head of the Nazareth Baptist Church, generally known as Shembe. The judgment by Justice Levinson effectively removes Ebuhleni group leader Inkosi Vimbeni Mbusi Shembe as the head of the church’s trust with immediate effect. - Sowetan website

Shembe rejects court ruling - 19 June
The Nazareth Baptist Church (known as Shembe) Ekuphakameni faction led by prophet Vukile Shembe is unhappy with the Pietermaritzburg high court ruling that a rival is the legitimate leader of the church. Ekuphakameni faction spokesperson Velemafini "Edward" Ximba said he "knows nothing" about Judge Levinson's decision. Ximba said they have seen the court order informing them that Sizwe is the leader. "We do not know where this Sizwe comes from. As far as we know, he is an opportunist who wants to cash in on the legacy of the church", he said. "He must just go and find a job ; our church is not a firm to feed him". - Sowetan website

Leadership woes bedevil Shembe - 25 June
The Shembe church's leadership woes continue after the Pietermaritzburg high court issued another ruling informing Inkosi Sizwe Mudliwamafa Shembe to refrain from calling himself the leader. On Tuesday, Justice Jerome Mnguni ruled that Sizwe Shembe and two others must stop presenting themselves as Shembe church trustees. The ruling comes a month after Justice Chris Levinsohn ruled in favour of Sizwe Shembe. - Sowetan website

Court grants man R21m - 25 June
The department of transport in KwaZulu-Natal was on Tuesday ordered to pay 70 percent of the R30 million damages claimed by an Australian who was injured on the Sani Pass road. Making the order, Pietermaritzburg high court judge Sharmaine Balton said the poor state of the road to Lesotho was an indictment of the department. Australian electrician Murray Eastman was left a paraplegic by an accident on this road in March 2005. Eastman and his wife Jane had spent long periods in local hospitals and would require further expensive treatment in future in Australia. They were injured when a bakkie driven by retired Australian professor Robert Mitchell crashed between Himeville and Sani Pass road. According to evidence , Mitchell was driving fast on a wet, slippery road. He was ordered to pay 30 percent, or R9 million, of the Eastman couple's damages. - Sowetan website

See also :

Pothole wrangle goes to highest court - 23 June
The Constitutional Court will be the final arbiter on who is responsible for the severe injuries sustained by a Pietermaritzburg advocate when he crashed his bicycle while trying to avoid potholes in August 2004. Allistair McIntosh, who sued the KwaZulu-Natal premier and transport MEC four years ago for R7,6-million because of the injuries he sustained, confirmed to The Mercury on Sunday that he had been served with papers indicating the provincial government's intention to challenge the matter in the Constitutional Court. - IOL website
[
InfoUpdate 29 of 2008]

Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
29 May 2008
632/07
McIntosh v Premier, KwaZulu-Natal (632/07) [2008] ZASCA 62
Delict – cyclist falling in attempt to avoid pothole in road - legal duty of Province apparent from statute – additional considerations when weighing up reasonableness of public authority's conduct

Pothole victim sues province - 26 January 2009
The Witness website
[InfoUpdate 3 of 2009]

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