Skip to document content Skip to main menu Skip to search

Latest Articles

Too many heirs to this traditional Zambian throne

ZAMBIA’S courts have been wrestling with how to resolve a dispute over a “novel situation”: too many contenders to the throne of Chief Kapijimanga, leader of the country’s Kaonde people. The high court proposed an unusual remedy for this dilemma, namely that all subjects should be involved in considering the way forward. But this apparently democratizing approach was overturned on appeal with the supreme court finding that the electoral college of royal family members traditionally made such decisions – not their “subjects”.

A new chapter for human rights in Zimbabwe?

A KEY section of one of Zimbabwe’s most used – and most despised – anti-human rights laws, the Public Order and Security Act (Posa), has been declared unconstitutional by eight senior judges sitting as that country’s constitutional court. Among others, the section allowed for repeated month-long bans on all public demonstrations in any areas. The judgment found the section effectively gave the authorities power to nullify two important fundamental rights – to demonstrate and to petition – “completely and perpetually”. The outcome has been widely welcomed, among others by Amnesty International.

Zimbabwe victims of SA’s banking woes in novel relief bid
Zimbabwe victims of SA’s banking woes in novel relief bid

SA’s corruption woes are casting long shadows across the whole region. Highly improper decisions to “invest” in two discredited SA financial outfits, VBS Mutual Bank and Mamepe Capital, have led to the demise of a Namibian bank intended to provide banking facilities for Namibia’s small businesses and disadvantaged communities. The insolvency of the bank has in turn hit its two minorities shareholders, both from Zimbabwe. Lawyers for the Zimbabwe shareholders have tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Namibia’s highest court not to wind up the bank. They took a novel line, saying the Namibian constitution required the courts to adopt a different view on what should have happened when the bank was identified as insolvent. The judges should have been tougher on procedural shortcomings in the light of the constitutional aims of empowering disadvantaged communities, and should not have approved the winding-up application. First the high court and now the supreme court as well, have rejected this argument, saying Namibia was based on the rule of law, and the central bank was bound by law to act as it did to protect the country’s financial stability and the hard-earned savings of people and enterprises.

Customary Land Act and Regulations Now in Force in Malawi

The Customary Land Act, 2016 of Malawi commenced in March 2018.  The commencement notice was followed by Customary Land Regulations, 2018 in April 2018.

First woman chief justice sworn in for Ethiopia

For the first time in the country's history, Ethiopia has a woman chief justice. Meaza Ashenafi was sworn in as the head of the Federal Supreme Court today, 1 November 2018. She had been nominated by Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. Ashenafi, the founder of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is widely regarded for her work as a human rights activist.

Judges lash ‘disingenuous’ magistrate for ‘mind-boggling’ action

A provincial magistrate has come under fire from two judges of the high court in Zimbabwe for “conducting himself as a loose cannon” and for not telling the truth to an accused about what the judges had ordered in their review of the original trial court sentence. The magistrate first imposed a hopelessly lenient sentence on a bus driver whose negligence directly caused the death of six people and then misrepresented to the accused the high court’s order on review. The judges said the magistrate’s behaviour was “mind boggling”, that he had been “untruthful”, had “taken leave of his senses” and “embarked on a frolic of his own”. They also ordered that their judgment be brought to the attention of the chief magistrate who was to ensure that the conduct of the magistrate concerned “is not repeated”.

Land commission reversed after “monumental, unmitigated” breach of natural justice

LAND issues are causing storms in many African countries as politicians, courts and ordinary people struggle to work out a just solution to problems of land ownership. While in Uganda the issue of how the judiciary handles land issues is currently causing a spat between judges themselves, in Kenya a new decision has seen the National Land Commission thoroughly trounced by the high court because of the way it has handled a matter.

Top judges jolt magistrates, prosecutors over slack handling of drugs cases

TWO high court judges in Namibia have strongly criticized magistrates and prosecutors in that country’s lower courts for not taking drug abuse offences seriously enough. The two judges, one of them Judge President Petrus Damaseb, were reviewing the conviction and sentence of a drug dealer who had been selling cannabis to children at a primary school. After the prosecution put to him the count of possession only – and not the second count of dealing – the prosecutor proposed that he be dealt with under a section that limits sentence to a fine. The judges said the purpose of their strongly-worded judgment in the case was to emphasise to prosecutors and magistrates “the need to reflect on the approach currently adopted in the lower courts which, unfortunately, often operates against the interests of justice.” The judges, who said they confirmed conviction and sentence only reluctantly, urged that a clear message should now emerge from the court that crimes of this nature would no longer be tolerated and that sentences would from now on be “appropriately severe”.

Top Kenyan officials must pay damages personally in Miguna case - high court

We start the new year with a sensational turn to the high-profile dispute between the Kenyan government and controversial political figure Miguna Miguna: the high court has ordered that six top government and police officials must together personally pay his legal costs in a case testing the validity of his arrest, torture, and deportation. Not just that, the six officials must also jointly pay the Kshs7m Miguna was awarded in damages by the court for the violation of his rights. Miguna was arrested a year ago under dramatic circumstances and twice deported to Canada within a few weeks, despite judicial orders that he be produced before the high court. Those court orders are still being ignored by government officials and Miguna was unable to attend argument in his case as he is still in Canada and prohibited from entering Kenya. Among other shocking allegations the court heard that state agents blew off the doors to Miguna’s house when they first arrested him, and that he was held for days in a toilet cubicle at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport before he was injected with a tranquilizer to subdue him so that he could be deported for a second time.

Nigerian flags at half-mast over death of former chief justice

NIGERIA’S judiciary declared seven days of mourning after the death of a former chief justice last month. Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, who was buried on 24 October, 2018, was 78, and had served as chief justice from 2007 to 2009.

"Disgraceful abuse of legal authority" - attorney re-writes court's judgment before delivery
"Disgraceful abuse of legal authority" - attorney re-writes court's judgment before delivery

In what two high court judges have described as misconduct “unprecedented in the annals of SA judicial history”, a magistrate has been found to have allowed an attorney to re-write his judgment before delivery. Even worse, the attorney concerned had appeared for one side in the case that led to the judgment. The magistrate, who has since died, initially wrote a judgment four pages in length, but after the attorney’s re-write this increased to 10 pages. The case involved a civil claim against the minister of police who, on hearing that the final judgment had been written by the attorney representing the opposing parties, asked for the judgment to be set aside by the high court. Reviewing the matter, the judges strongly criticized the magistrate and attorney involved and ordered that the case be heard again, from scratch, by someone from outside the district where the first trial was conducted. They also ordered that the legal practice council investigate the conduct of the attorney involved, and that the magistrate and attorney pay the legal costs of the review on a punitive scale.

Christmas is coming, so we're putting you in jail

In the midst of bad stories about the quality of justice being experienced in Zimbabwe’s courts comes a high court judgment that sees the accused as an individual – and that sets aside his trial sentence in the lower court as a shocking expression of the magistrate’s whims about burglars at Christmas.

No gvmt budget to pay damages’ award is no excuse – high court
No gvmt budget to pay damages’ award is no excuse – high court

What is a litigant supposed to do when the government simply ignores court orders to pay damages? The problem can be starkly seen in this case of a Kenyan man who nearly lost his life when he was attacked and severely beaten by soldiers almost 30 years ago. Decades later, George Waithaka is still struggling to get the compensation due to him on the orders of the court. Faced by authorities who do nothing to ensure his payment, Waithaka has now won a contempt of court order against the official who should have signed the cheque.

“Ogoni 9” case back in the spotlight, this time in the Netherlands
“Ogoni 9” case back in the spotlight, this time in the Netherlands

The families of nine environment and human rights activists executed by the Nigerian government in 1995, have their hopes for justice pinned on a court in the Netherlands, where a preliminary round was argued this week.

Valentine's Day winner: New Tanzanian court rules improve experience of justice by vulnerable groups
Valentine's Day winner: New Tanzanian court rules improve experience of justice by vulnerable groups

Tanzania’s Chief Justice, Ibrahim Hamis Juma, has promulgated new rules that could greatly change how people from vulnerable groups experience courts and the justice system. That is why this is Jifa's winning Valentine's Day 2019 good news story: we like the care it shows for normally-forgotten people with no one else to champion their cause. The rules prioritise cases involving disadvantaged people, and set deadlines for finalizing matters in which they are involved. The new rules also provide that visually impaired people will get a free braille copy of any judgment or order in a case where they are involved, and that a specially assigned employee at each court will be responsible for making everyone at that court more sensitive to “vulnerability issues”.

Malawi’s CJ, JSC acted illegally over new appointments – high court
Malawi’s CJ, JSC acted illegally over new appointments – high court

When a number of court clerks obtained an order temporarily stopping the country’s Judicial Service Commission and the Chief Justice from recruiting and appointing a certain category of magistrate until their employment dispute was fully considered by the high court, the stage was set: some high court judge would have to consider whether Malawi’s top judge and judicial appointment authority were acting illegally. Judge Zione Ntaba drew the short straw. Faced with this difficult and sensitive question she said the JSC had to devise policy on crucial human resource issues, so that decisions on the appointments of magistrates should be clear, unambiguous and consistent.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 14 February 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)

Blunders set back fight against corruption
Blunders set back fight against corruption

Namibia’s watchdog Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is in a great deal of trouble: a major bribery and fraud case, begun in 2009, appears to be imploding. Ten years after the scandal first broke that a member of the Public Service Commission, guardian of ethical conduct in the civil service, had been arrested and charged with two others in connection with massive corruption, the High Court has dealt what might be a crippling blow to the prosecution.  Judge Christie Liebenberg has found that because the ACC did not follow correct procedures its summonses issued to several banks were invalid. All the evidence against the accused from the banks was thus unlawfully obtained and inadmissible in court. Though an appeal has since been noted, the prospects of a successful prosecution seem increasingly bleak at this stage, particularly since this is not the first time the courts have knocked out evidence due to be heard in the trial on the grounds that it was improperly obtained.

Court tells Ugandan Law Council: ad hoc decisions about admission to practice wrong and must stop
Court tells Ugandan Law Council: ad hoc decisions about admission to practice wrong and must stop

The council that oversees access to the legal profession in Uganda has just experienced a thorough defeat in the high court. A full bench found the council had not passed the regulations it should long ago have put in place regulating admission of candidates to the roll of advocates. Instead it made ad hoc decisions about admission, something that was “wrong and must stop”. The council was also told that it was acting against the spirit of the East African Community Treaty which frowned on “protectionism” and that it could not unfairly discriminate against Ugandan would-be advocates with training and qualifications from other common law countries.

Reaction to shock suspension of Nigeria's Chief Justice
Reaction to shock suspension of Nigeria's Chief Justice

THE decision by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, to suspend the country’s chief justice, Walter Onnoghen, has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad. Following the suspension of Nigeria’s judicial leader, his deputy as chief justice, Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed, was sworn in as replacement. But Buhari’s decision has sparked considerable criticism with commentators pointing out that it comes shortly before a critical election in which Judge Onnoghen could have played an important role.

Recent news

Categories