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Get your court paperwork in order, Namibian judges warn magistrates

What should the high court do when faced with trial records from the magistrate’s court that reflect the names of three different people in a case involving just one accused: one name at the typed start of the trial, a different name and age in the hand-written section of the record and a third name and age in the part of the trial dealing with mitigation? These and other problems have been taxing the high court in Namibia. Now, in a new decision responding to the records of 13 matters before them on automatic review, two judges have listed the most common mistakes they find in magistrate’s court records, and have asked that the magistrate’s commission take note.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 3 April 2019

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)

Article 2845
Article 2845

Two African cigarette companies have been slugging it out in court for years, trying to gain advantage in the lucrative smoking markets of Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and elsewhere. Both Leaf Tobacco and Mastermind Tobacco want to work the problem of access to South Sudan for their own benefit. Most recently Leaf Tobacco has sued Uganda’s revenue authority, saying it is complicit in allowing the smuggling of cigarettes, and that the Ugandan revenue authority ought to obey the orders of a court in South Sudan. So, what would the high court’s commercial division in Kampala have to say about such an argument?

INDIGO LEGISLATION PLATFORM: CONSOLIDATE AND PUBLISH LEGISLATION

AfricanLII and Laws.Africa develop and maintain the Indigo Legislation Platform, which makes it easier for you, government, commercial and non-profit organizations to capture, update and use legislation.

UK court hands "Africa's last colony" an unexpected win
UK court hands "Africa's last colony" an unexpected win

While two rival meetings were being held in Africa this week on the disputed future of Western Sahara, the territory – often referred to as Africa’s last colony – won an unexpected victory in court.

"You forged your salary increase letter" - now court awards damages for this allegation
"You forged your salary increase letter" - now court awards damages for this allegation

The case of Evans Mukolwe will not give much encouragement to anyone considering a job with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Mukolwe was recruited from a senior job with considerable prestige at the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva. He was appointed to head the KWS in October 2003 but though he was promised that the salary would be made comparable to that which he had enjoyed in Switzerland, he was repeatedly frustrated when salary increases failed to materialise. Finally, in June 2004, he received a letter from the board of trustees giving him the increase and associated perks he had wanted. The upgraded salary lasted only a couple of months, however. Then he was suddenly suspended, without pay. KWS claimed that the letter telling Mukolwe about his pay increase was forged; a very serious claim to make about anyone, let alone a scientist who had been hand-picked and persuaded to leave his position in the WMO Secretariat. Understandably, Mukolwe sued and he has just been awarded more than Kshs24m ($240 000) in damages, plus three months' salary in lieu of notice as well as other payments.

Collective Land Ownership in the 21st Century: Overview of Global Trends

Statutory recognition of rural communities as collective owners of their lands is substantial, expanding, and an increasingly accepted element of property relations. The conventional meaning of property in land itself is changing, allowing for a greater diversity of attributes without impairing legal protection. General identified trends include: (1) declining attempts to deny that community lands are property on the grounds that they may not be sold or are owned collectively; (2) increased provision for communities to be registered owners to the same degree as individual and corporate persons; (3) a rise in number of laws catering specifically to the identification, registration and governance of community property; and (4) in laws that acknowledge that community property may exist whether or not it has been registered, and that registration formalizes rather than creates property in these cases. The research examined the laws of 100 countries to ascertain the status of lands which social communities, either traditionally or in more contemporary arrangements, deem to be their own. Sampling is broadly consistent with numbers of countries per region. The constitutions of all 100 countries were examined. The land laws of 61 countries were scrutinized. Secondary sources were used for 39 countries, mainly due to laws not being available in English. The main secondary source used was LandMark, whose data is publicly available at  www.landmarkmap.org .

Copyright & A2K Issues - 26 March 2019

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)

Magistrates' recusal protests "insubordination" - Namibian Supreme Court

TWO regional magistrates who felt they were being badly treated by the authorities over promotion and then recused themselves in protest, have now been ordered back to work by Namibia’s top court. The magistrates stood down from several part-heard cases to highlight what they considered unfair treatment. The two, who held office in the district magistrates’ courts, had been asked to hear regional court cases in an acting capacity. But they were also informed by the magistrates’ appointment body that they were not suitable for full-time appointment to the regional court. This was because new regulations restricted regional court appointment to magistrates with certain qualifications only. According to the Supreme Court their protest actions were “sheer insubordination of great magnitude”, and though the justices expressed some sympathy with the magistrates, they reversed the recusals and ordered them to continue the delayed cases “with deliberate speed”.

Spy-thriller fizzles as Ugandan court acquits suspect
Spy-thriller fizzles as Ugandan court acquits suspect

Official security networks in Uganda and neighbouring Sudan were set buzzing in 2013 when a Sudanese diplomat was expelled from Uganda. Shortly afterwards the story broke of the arrest of a Ugandan clerk in his country’s foreign intelligence agency, the External Security Organisation. Stephen Kisembo, a staffer of the ESO, had been found with secret documents, according to the story, and was to stand trial. He was alleged to have been delivering similar documents over several years to Sudanese diplomats, in a plan devised by the expelled envoy. However, six years later, and despite the apparently strong case against him, the high court has now found Kisembo not guilty.