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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

26 June 2009
34474/2009
Law Society of the Northern Provinces and Muller Mostert and Partners v Rules Board for Courts of Law, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Minister of Finance and Registrar of the High Court
Magistrates' Court Rule 34(4)
Uniform Rules of Court. Rule 67

Press release : 29 June 2009 Law Society welcomes court order declaring unstamped court documents valid since repeal of Stamp Duties Act The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) has welcomed an order by the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria last Friday, declaring all court documents issued without revenue stamps, imprinted stamp or payment of court fees since 1 April 2009, to be valid. 'Had this order not been successful, the invalidation of unstamped summonses due to the unavailability of revenue stamps could have had disastrous consequences for litigants whose claims could prescribe as a result of the invalidity', say LSSA Co-Chairpersons Thoba Poyo-Dlwati and Henri van Rooyen. The Law Society of the Northern Provinces (LSNP) – representing some 10 000 attorneys in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North-West – brought the application against the Rules Board for Courts of Law, the Ministers of Justice and Constitutional Development and Finance, as well as the Registrar of the High Court, to have specific court rules suspended that require court documents to be stamped in order to be valid. Revenue stamps have been demonetised [deprived of their status as money] when the Revenue Laws Amendment Act, 2008 which repealed the Stamp Duties Act, 1968, came in to effect earlier this year. This has led to a shortage of revenue stamps. The LSNP indicated in its documents before the Pretoria court that members of the public litigating in the courts were being prejudiced by · the unavailability of revenue stamps in certain areas ; and · the refusal by clerks of the Magistrates' Courts and the Registrars of the High Court to issue summonses and applications without revenue stamps.  Even in cases where litigants had been permitted to issue documents without revenue stamps, there was still the risk that, without the current court order, the unstamped applications could be invalidated or nullified. The LSSA and LSNP had, on several occasions in the past, made the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Rules Board and the South African Revenue Service aware of the difficulties that would arise if the court rules were not amended in the light of the intended repeal of the Stamp Duties Act. However, despite these warnings to the Minister, the Stamp Duties Act was repealed without taking the consequences into account. The North Gauteng High Court declared on Friday that all court process shall, if not stamped, be issued by clerks of the court and registrars without self-affixing revenue stamps, imprinted stamps and without court payment. In addition, all court process issued after 1 April 2009 without stamps having been affixed, will be valid process. The order will be binding on all courts nationally as the court has directed the Minister of Justice and Constitutional development to notify all clerks of the court and registrars of the order. Issued on behalf of the Co-Chairpersons of the Law Society of South Africa by : Barbara Whittle Communication Manager, Law Society of South Africa Telephone : 012-366 8800 or 083-380 1307 E-mail : barbara@lssa.org.za Website: www.lssa.org.za

Unstamped court documents are valid : LSSA - 29 June
A court order that all court documents issued without revenue stamps, imprinted stamps or payment of court fees were valid was welcomed by the Law Society of SA (LSSA) on Monday. "Had this order not been successful, the invalidation of unstamped summonses due to the unavailability of revenue stamps could have had disastrous consequences for litigants whose claims could prescribe as a result of the invalidity", said co-chairmen Thoba Poyo-Dlwati and Henri van Rooyen. The Law Society of the Northern Provinces (LSNP) - representing some 10 000 attorneys in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West - applied to the High Court in Pretoria to have specific court rules suspended that required court documents to be stamped to be valid. - Citizen website

Surrogates no longer legal parents - 27 June
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has handed down a landmark judgment that recognises couples, who have children through surrogacy, as the legal parents. On Tuesday, Judge Pierre Rabie ruled in favour of a Pretoria couple who wanted this assurance before they started the medical process with a close family friend who is willing to carry their baby. For years, men and women who used surrogate mothers to bear their children had to adopt the child before they could legally be regarded as the parents. The adoption could take from a few months to two years to finalise. But Judge Rabie ruled that the genetic parents are the legal parents, not the surrogate mother - thus eliminating the need for such parents to launch adoption proceedings once the baby is born. - The Times website

Woman freed of fake husband - 29 June
After a struggle with the Department of Home Affairs that lasted almost seven years, a Pretoria woman who was "married" to a Tanzanian was able to marry the love of her life last week after the Pretoria High Court declared she had not had a "Tanzanian husband". But 30-year-old Carin Ionescu had to turn to the courts and incur a great expense to be able carry on with her life. - IOL website

Licence may be valid, but firearm is gone - 30 June
Gun owners from across Cape Town have been streaming into dealerships in the vain hope of retrieving the weapons they either sold or handed over voluntarily, in the wake of a Pretoria High Court ruling that the old licences are still valid. Previously, gun owners who missed the deadline for licence renewals were expected to hand in their weapons to police by midnight on Tuesday. But that changed with the High Court ruling on Friday, after police were apparently unable to cope administratively with the licensing burden, in line with the Firearms Control Act. - IOL website

Businessman claims R120 000 from airline - 30 June
A Sandhurst businessman is claiming nearly R120 000 in damages from South African Airways after alleging that items were stolen from his baggage when he flew from OR Tambo Airport to London Heathrow 18 months ago. Jean-Yves Ollivier instituted the claim in the Pretoria High Court, where Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann added the minister of transport as the second defendant in the action. - IOL website
Keyphrase :
Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air

Racial claims emerge in tow-truck row - 1 July
A court battle between six insurance and brokerage companies and a group of black tow-truck operators took a racial turn on Tuesday when operators embarked on a protest outside the court displaying posters bearing racial slogans such as "Black residents pay cartel for white dominance". The drama unfolded at the Pretoria High Court where the insurance companies and brokerage companies locked horns with a Soshanguve towing service regarding the latter's towing away from accident scenes of vehicles insured by the six applicant companies. - The Sunday Independent website

Towing industry lacks ethics, court is told - 1 July
There is an apparent lack of control and ethics in the towing industry, Pretoria High Court Judge Moses Mavundla said yesterday during legal argument in an urgent application against an emerging Soshanguve towing business, UDN Towing Service. The applicants - Insurers Telesure Group Services, Auto & General Insurance and several brokers - were seeking an interdict to stop UDN from towing or storing any of their insured vehicles. - The Star website

Presidential Pardons

Constitutional Court 'only can judge President' - 29 June
The Constitutional Court is the only competent court to decide on the conduct of the president in not granting pardons to Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) prisoners, counsel for the president and the justice minister say in their submissions to the court. The minister is appealing against a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment in March that former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla was obliged to process the applications for pardon of 384 IFP members and do what was required to enable the president to exercise his power to pardon them. Last month, Chief Justice Pius Langa asked the minister and the prisoners to make submissions on whether - in the light of two sections in the constitution concerning the president's powers and the Constitutional Court's powers - the high court and the SCA were competent to hear the matter of pardons. The chief justice also asked whether only the Constitutional Court was competent to hear the matter. - allAfrica website

See also :
North Gauteng High Court
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

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