Here's a case with shades of Kenneth Makate's claim that Vodacom ripped off his intellectual property, adn for which he has rewarded earlier this year with R10,5bn in the Constitutional Court. In this case, Johan Reynders of software company ADS says Standard Bank pilfered his intellectual property when it introduced an anti-hacking solution for its online clients in the 2000s. The difference here is Reynders is claiming $10bn from the bank.
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French economist and philosopher Frederic Bastiat wrote The Law in 1850. It should be required reading for law makers, judges and legal practitioners. Bastiat argues that the law exists in a very narrow sense to protect the individual's body, liberty and property. Beyond that, tyranny beckons.
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The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has threatened legal action against SAA should it proceed with a R15 billion refinancing of the airline using a boutique finance house, BnP Capital, which has no track record in a deal of this size or nature, and in fact had its Financial Services Board licence revoked. The board of SAA chose BnP over more credible financial institutions, and agreed to pay three times what other bidders were offering - all in the name of "transformation". Then SAA fired Cynthia Stimpel, the group treasurer, for objecting to this outrageous deal.
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When Johannesburg businessman Imtiaz Mohammed was shot dead by a disgruntled employee in 2010, it fell to his widow Hajira to wrap up the estate. Only years later she discovered some dirty family secrets intended to keep her late husband’s assets out of her hands. It turns out her dead husband’s business bank account was kept alive by Standard Bank and other members of the family for 18 months after his murder. Read More »
In this article, Rex van Schalkwyk, a former Supreme Court judge, points out several instances where senior politicians and government officials stomped all over the Constitution, not to mention common law standards of fraud, and got away with it. Instead of being held to the same standard as the rest of us, they abusers were sheltered by their political bretheren.
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A young Joburg couple ended up losing two houses after falling R17,500 in arrears on a copier machine they were renting. The Kromers knew nothing of the law when all this was going down, but now they are angry - and fighting back. Had they known at the time what they know now, they would have immediately defended the matter and leaned on the Constitutional prohibition on arbitrary deprivation of property. They would also have invoked the Conventional Penalties Act, which prevents a creditor making a claim such as this out of all proportion to the prejudice suffered.
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Judge Dolamo took just 45 seconds to dismiss a case brought by the Democratic Alliance calling for a commission of inquiry into the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mongcobo Jiba, who has a long and storied history of going to bat for President Zuma in his own troubles with the law.
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The Credit Ombud reports a drop in complaints related to emolument attachment orders (EAO) after the so-called Stellenbosch case, which is now before the Constitutional Court. But the Credit Ombud's annual report for 2015 also shows how dodgy law firms are creating fictitious debts and some unregistered credit providers are refusing to furnish statements of account when asked to do so by customers.
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As Acts Online has previosuly reported, SA is in the Stone Age when it comes to home repossessions. The good news is that the courts are considering changing its rules to prevent houses being sold at auction without reserve prices.
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Nkosana Makate has waged a 16 year battle to get what he argues is his rightful reward for inventing the Please Call Me service while an employee at Vodacom, which has a different view of how the servuce came about. Now the case is about to be decided by the Constitutional Court.
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Stories of mass evictions were common during the apartheid years. It's happening again, this time at the behest of the banks, but the victims are of every race, including the poorest of the poor. One human rights group has decided to fight back.
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Last year, two days before Xmas, Lennie Katz, the liquidations supremo at Edward Nathan Sonnenberg, served summons on Noseweek and its editor Martin Welz for “wrongful defamation” over stories he had written on the Brakspear v Nedgroup and other cases. Welz and Noseweek are defending the action. Here’s the latest.Read More »
FNB valued Mike Russwurm's house in Johannesburg at R1,4m just a few years before he fell into arrears. It then went and sold his house at auction for R10,000. Yes, you read that right. That's less than 1% of its original value. Here's what happened.
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Tales of bogus land claims and scammers are legion. One farmer was subjected to a bogus land claim for 10 years, and was met with delays and incompetence when he tried to get answers from the Land Claims Commission. The Supreme Court of Appeal had some choice words for the Commission in a recent case.
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The Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that court files are open to the public, reinforcing the Constitutional Court's view that proper reporting on court proceedings was vital in promoting open justice and accurate public knowledge of the justice system.
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Litigation is expensive and, by its nature, adversarial. The justice system will soon be able to offer court-based mediation as an alternative method of dispute resolution, where opposing parties will be encouraged to find one point of common agreement, rather than multiple points of disagreement.
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Eskom has been hit with a R600m law sui8t by two firms claiming the state power utility unlawfully terminated pension and funeral cover policies for its employees.
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The Supreme Court of Appeal in a scathing judgment has ordered ArcelorMittal SA to hand over documents to an environmental group concerned with monitoring environmental practices by private companies. This case has wide implications for business in South Africa.
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Two entertainers - Steve Hofmeyr and puppet master Chester Missing - will battle it out in court this week over accusations of racism. This is thought to be the first time a puppet has been cited in court papers.
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Westinghouse is asking the North Gauteng High Court to jail two Eskom executives for failure to hand over documents relating to a R4,3 billion tneder at the Koeberg nuclear power station. Eskom is fighting back, claiming this is a "gross abuse of the court process."
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Judge Thokozile Masipa has been the subject of ferocious attacks over her culpable homicide verdict in the Oscar Pistorius trial. This has placed the subject of judicial error under the spotlight, writes Trudi Makhaya.
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BDS South Africa recently won a freedom of expression case against the City of Johannesburg and Continental Outdoor Media after its pro-Palestinian billboards were removed without notice, apparently following pressure from the Israel lobby.
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Insurance giant Discovery was ordered by the High Court in Johannesburg to pay the partner of murdered business tycoon Jeff Wiggill R11,5 million last month. Discovery had argued that Wiggill was involved in unlawful activities and there were suspicions that his murder may have been an assisted suicide.
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Ian Brakspear's trial came to a close last week in the Durban High Court. There were accusations of a forged court order that was used to liquidate his company, West Dunes, and lengthy argument on whether the case was actually heard by a judge. Points were scored by both sides, but overall, it was a shocking display of South African justice at work.
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Class action suits are a rarity in SA, but that appears to be changing. Two recent class action suits - one involving the so-called "Satinsky R699 a month car scheme" and another being brought by Transnet pensioners against their pension fund - have changed the litigation landscape.
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