Latest Articles

All years
Copyright & A2K Issues - 29 May 2018

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.  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za  with "Subscribe, or Unsubscribe, to Copyright & A2K Issues"  in the subject field.

Legal Deposit in South Africa - 1 June 2017
Principles that Govern Matters of General Public Importance 

What types of appeals lay from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court What were the principles to determine whether a matter was of general public importance Whether a matter that would affect fundamental freedoms amounts to a matter of general public importance

Capital Gains Tax in Transactions entered into pursuant to the Chargee’s Statutory Power of Sale not Payable before Completion of Sale of the Charged Property

By an administrative action announced in a notice published in the Daily Nation newspaper on October 4, 2016 the Respondent discontinued the manual payment of both stamp duty and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and required the simultaneous online payment of both stamp duty and CGT. It is alleged that the effect of the announcement was that stamp duty had to be paid through the Respondent’s I-tax system simultaneously with the CGT. It was also alleged that the I-tax system did not permit the payment of stamp duty on a transfer unless an acknowledgment number for the payment of CGT on that sale was entered into the I-tax system. Aggrieved by the Respondent’s administrative action the Applicant filed the instant Application.

Dismissal of cases that raise issues of breach of fundamental rights and freedoms at an interlocutory stage

The  ex parte  Applicants were elected Members of the National Assembly representing various constituencies and were all members of the Jubilee Party having been elected on its ticket. The Applicants were nominated and consequently approved by the House as members of the Labour and Social Welfare Committee, Agriculture and Livestock Committee, Environment and Natural Resources Committee and Parliamentary Broadcasting and Library Committee in the National Assembly. The  ex parte A pplicants expressed interest in being considered as leaders of their respective Committees and were elected as the Chairpersons of the said committees on December 20, 2017. On December 21, 2017 the  ex parte  Applicants were served with notices from the 3 rd  Respondent notifying them of their intended discharge from the said departmental committees. Subsequently, the 1 st  Respondent discharged them from their various departmental committees. Aggrieved by the decision to discharge them, the  ex parte  Applicants sought leave of the Court to institute judicial review proceedings, the Court granted leave to the Applicants to commence judicial review proceedings and directed that the said leave operate as a stay of the decision of the 1 st  and 3 rd  Respondents to discharge the Applicants from their various departmental committees pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion. Aggrieved by the Court’s decision the 1 st  and 2 nd  Respondent filed an application seeking several orders among them that the judicial review proceedings commenced by the  ex parte  Applicants be dismissed and that the  ex parte  Applicants be referred to the appropriate forum for the adjudication of the dispute. The 3 rd Respondent subsequently filed a Preliminary Objection on the grounds that the Court lacked jurisdiction to determine the proceedings.

‘War against women’ with rise in gender-based torture

A judge in Zimbabwe has slammed fatal domestic violence against women as 'gender-based torture'. Sentencing a man who savagely murdered his partner the judge, Amy Tsanga, said women were 'clobbered, booted, strangled, stabbed or slashed to death' by their partners. Such attacks so often happened in their own bedrooms that these spaces had become 'a deadly environment' for women. In her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, Carmel Rickard writes about this and other similar cases finalised in the courts of the southern African region in the first half of April alone, and says there seems to be a 'war against women'.

Lesotho High Court Recognises the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Female Soldiers

On 14 February 2018, the Lesotho High Court handed down judgment in a landmark case on women’s rights. The judgment of Sakoane J (as part of a 3 panel bench) in the case of  Private Lekhetso Mokhele and Others v The Commander, Lesotho Defence Forces and Others  sets an important precedent on the rights of pregnant employees in the military.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 2 May 2018

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.  If you would like to subscribe to or unsubscribe from to this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za  with "Subscribe to Copyright & A2K Issues"  in the subject field.

Ghana's justice system needs a major overhaul: here's what should be done

Ghana’s justice system is not just slow. It’s also expensive and sometimes even harsh.

South Africa's courts and lawmakers have failed the ideal of cultural diversity
South Africa's courts and lawmakers have failed the ideal of cultural diversity

The approach to law reform and judicial lawmaking that I propose is one in which African values are the starting point. This means accepting that African values exist. This might sound obvious. But a great many people deny that they do, or that they have any relevance in a modern society. These values display a different emphasis from the western world view, and South Africans need to accept that they have a positive contribution to make in creating a new society.