Skip to document content Skip to main menu Skip to search

Latest Articles

RIP Seychelles Justice Prithviraj Fekna
RIP Seychelles Justice Prithviraj Fekna

Justice Prithviraj Fekna, who served on the Seychelles Court of Appeal, died unexpected this week. He had been sworn into office as a non-resident member of the appeal court on 27 June this year. Previously he had been a member of the Supreme Court of Mauritius.

Planned changes to Zambia’s constitution ‘infringe judicial independence’

Zambia’s ruling Patriotic Front government is in the process of piloting wide-ranging changes to the country’s constitution into law. The proposed amendments have drawn considerable criticism from political opponents of the PF on grounds of poor drafting, infringement of individual and community rights and of threatening judicial independence, among others. They are also under fire from local and international legal and human rights organisations.

Long delays in Ugandan justice system “no speculation” says Supreme Court judge – and grants bail
Long delays in Ugandan justice system “no speculation” says Supreme Court judge – and grants bail

Faced with an application for bail pending a last appeal, how should a senior court approach the reality of this situation: long delays will mean that the accused could well have served his entire sentence by the time the appeal is heard? Here is what Uganda’s highest court had to say on the subject.

Raped child not sworn in properly: life sentence, conviction set aside

The child in this case claimed she had been raped by a relative of her father’s, starting from when she was nine years old. The case against the accused seemed strong, and the regional (senior) magistrate convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But when he appealed, the high court found the child had not been properly sworn in: conviction was set aside, along with his life sentence, and the man walked free. This case, from the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa, is replicated in many countries, every day, because legal technicalities related to fair trial are so often ignored. As SA observes Human Rights Day, 2019, here's a plea: could the courts at least pledge to ensure they get the technicalities right? It would make a great impact of the human rights of every person brave enough to go through the trauma of reporting rape and giving evidence in a trial.

Secularism in Ghana "obviously" encourages state accommodation of religion and religious identity - Supreme Court
Secularism in Ghana "obviously" encourages state accommodation of religion and religious identity - Supreme Court

A major challenge to Ghana’s planned national cathedral, brought on the basis of a challenge to alleged infringements of the country’s “secular” constitution, has just been dismissed by the supreme court. Ghana’s highest court found that secularism in Ghana “obviously” allowed and encouraged recognition and accommodation of religion and religious identity by the state. But this does not necessarily mean criticism is over – plenty of critics say it will be wasteful and an unjustified expense.

Against background of “judicial martyrs to the rule of law”, Ghana’s top court considers political interference in judicial independence

IN a sensational new case, Ghana’s highest judicial forum has been considering whether it was lawful for the country’s president to reverse contempt of court sentences. This, after three men were sent to prison for effectively inciting people listening to a radio show to kill judges if they did not like the outcome of a then-pending case. The whole matter, referred to as “Montie 3” after the radio station involved, has touched a raw nerve in Ghana: no one has forgotten the three high court judges who were executed in 1982 on orders of the then political establishment. A memorial to these judicial “martyrs to the rule of law” stands not far from where the panel of judges has been considering the crucial questions of judicial independence and presidential power under the constitution prompted by the Montie 3 case.

Top Malawi officials face jail after contempt of court finding
Top Malawi officials face jail after contempt of court finding

Two top government officials will be sentenced on 5 August 2019 for disobeying an order of Malawi’s Supreme Court. They had been told by the highest court to apologise to the nation for their role in the ‘Tractorgate’ scandal that has gripped the country – but they failed to do so. Now the high court has called this a ‘mockery of justice’ and found them guilty of contempt of court.

Who won this battle of judge vs judges in Seychelles?
Who won this battle of judge vs judges in Seychelles?

For the last four years, the Seychelles judiciary has suffered division and disruption over the behaviour of a senior member of the bench, Durai Karunakaran. Recommended for dismissal by a tribunal that inquired into his behaviour, he resigned in March 2019, forestalling any action against him by the country’s President. But before he left, he had launched an appeal against one of the many court decisions against him. The outcome of newly released decision, likely to be the last in a very long series of cases under his name, is however not completely clear.

Army officers keep their 10 parliamentary seats in Uganda
Army officers keep their 10 parliamentary seats in Uganda

Over the last few months Uganda’s courts have delivered a series of decisions that extended democratic practices. Judges have declared restrictive legislation unconstitutional and ordered compensation for a detainee killed by police. No wonder some observers hoped that the constitutional court would rule in favour of an application to find army representation in parliament unconstitutional. No fewer than 10 parliamentary seats are reserved for ‘serving officers’ chosen by the Army Council, headed by President Yoweri Museveni. A human rights organization challenged the continuation of this practice, but last week the constitutional court turned down the application.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 30 July 2019 (Part 1)

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  Archives are available at:  http://www.africanlii.org/content/copyright-a2k-information .  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this newsletter, please do so at:  http://lists.wits.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/copyrightanda2kinfo    or email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za  only (N.B. PLEASE DO NOT SEND TO WHOLE MAILING LIST)

Copyright & A2K Issues - 30 July 2019 (Part 2)

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  Archives are available at:  http://www.africanlii.org/content/copyright-a2k-information .  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this newsletter, please do so at:  http://lists.wits.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/copyrightanda2kinfo    or email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za  only (N.B. PLEASE DO NOT SEND TO WHOLE MAILING LIST)

Malawi's national broadcaster refused permission for "live" coverage of major trial: here's why
Malawi's national broadcaster refused permission for "live" coverage of major trial: here's why

Malawi's high court judge Zione Jane Veronica Ntaba is no stranger to controversy. Among her decisions she found her country's Chief Justice, Andrew Nyirenda and the whole of the Malawi Judicial Service Commission had acted irregularly, illegally and unconstitutionally. Now she has made another noteworthy decision, turning down a request to have the second half of a potentially sensational trial broadcast by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Here’s the background – and her reasons.

Landmark defamation ruling clarifies standard for media
Landmark defamation ruling clarifies standard for media

A Zambian TV journalist has won his defamation case against his own bosses, 10 years after the station carried repeated broadcasts showing his arrest outside the studio for allegedly raping a teenager. The judgment by the country’s highest court gives legal finality to the matter, but also provided an opportunity for the court to re-state the standards by which it will consider a defence against defamation. The case involved a young girl, who claimed she desperately needed overnight accommodation. The journalist offered her space for the night, but the next day she told the station bosses that he had raped her. Without calling him in to ask his side of the story, officials contacted the police and stage-managed his arrest on camera. The court also heard that the girl was taken for a medical examination by another journalist but though the results could have been obtained, the TV station either did not do so, or knew the results – showing the girl had not been raped – and did not mention this in its report on the arrest.

Last minute 'settlement' in Lesotho's shock judicial disputes
Last minute 'settlement' in Lesotho's shock judicial disputes

As fresh elections in Lesotho seem increasingly likely because of splits in the ruling party, a last minute settlement means the judicial disputes that have shocked the legal world over the last month are, at least for now, off the table. The settlement came shortly after new details emerged of barbed correspondence between the President of the Court of Appeal, the Acting Chief Justice and the Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane. The correspondence formed part of the founding affidavit in papers filed by the law society of Lesotho in litigation aimed at preventing the appeal court president's suspension. It is widely believed that Thabane wants to get rid of the appeal court president, formerly a judicial favourite of his, because the Prime Minister no longer perceives the judge to be on his side in the ruling party's continuing leadership struggle.

Uganda’s courts ‘too westernized to handle cultural, customary issues’ – high court judge

Prominent Ugandan high court judge Ssekaana Musa has told litigants in dispute over traditional leadership that they should ‘always’ refer such quarrels ‘to the King or traditional or cultural leaders’. Judge Musa was considering two disputes about traditional leadership positions. He said that courts should discourage ‘petty issues’ like who was the rightful heir, family head or chief prince, from being ‘dragged to court’. These matters would be better dealt with by the established mechanism of a particular community, he said.

Abortion conundrum for court
Abortion conundrum for court

Imagine you are an appeal judge in a country that permits abortion under certain conditions. One day, you hear the case of a young woman unable to give consent to a termination due to her permanent mental disability and behavioural problems. Doctors who assessed her were unanimous that an abortion would be in her best interests. Her adoptive mother however was strongly against the idea. The judge in the high court declared that the young woman lacked legal capacity to consent to an abortion, but that it would be lawful and in her best interests for doctors to terminate the pregnancy. As an appeal court judge, what would you say?

Dispute between top judges and political leaders in Lesotho hots up
Dispute between top judges and political leaders in Lesotho hots up

The ongoing drama involving open conflict between political and judicial leaders in Lesotho continued this week and there is no sign that anyone is about to relent. Three potentially explosive challenges have been brought to court over the last few days, one of them a late-night urgent application. Two are for appeal while one is to be heard in the high court. All of them involve the judiciary probing highly sensitive political and judicial issues and raise questions of judicial independence. And in the meantime, a court of appeal judgment that has now been reported, throws more light on the dispute between Lesotho’s beleaguered Prime Minister, Tom Thabane, and the president of the court of appeal, Kanenelo Mosito.

Human trafficking reports show sub-Saharan Africa a global player
Human trafficking reports show sub-Saharan Africa a global player

The UN has just released its latest reports on human trafficking around the world. It shows that while most African countries now have proper laws in place, some countries do not use these laws and report no investigations and no prosecutions. One study quoted by the UN report estimated that 357 million children lived in conflict areas in 2016. Every one of them would have been at risk of exploitation by armed groups or other traffickers.

Should these judges have spoken out?
Should these judges have spoken out?

Three women judges of Zambia’s court of appeal have dismissed a young man’s appeal against his sentence of 30 years imprisonment with hard labour for violently raping his 12-year-old cousin three times. He maintained he took the girl as part of a Tonga custom in terms of which, as the judges put it in their decision, ‘one can abduct a woman ... have sexual intercourse with her and later formalize the marriage’. But though they dismissed his appeal against sentence, the judges did not take the opportunity to criticize the custom. They simply rejected this justification of his actions, because the trial record did not mention any agreement between the accused and the girl’s father for her to be abducted for the purposes of marriage. Why don’t judges speak out and condemn barbarities such as rape carried out in the name of custom and traditional marriage?

Lesotho’s PM threatens top judge with second impeachment

Judicial politics in Lesotho, highly fraught for some time, must now be the despair of the continent. For the fourth time in just a few years, a cloud hangs over a top judge of this mountain kingdom, with threats of suspension and impeachment. The latest development has been laid bare for the whole country to see, with the leaking of two letters indicating the struggle going on behind the scenes - and judicial independence, along with the Rule of Law, is very much the victim.

Recent news

Categories