Supreme Court

Read judgment

The dispute over what legal approach should be adopted by courts in Eswatini arose during the murder trial of Ndumiso Shongwe. He was charged with the murder of a relative whom he believed was a witch. He held her responsible for the death of his parents, and thought she had put a fatal spell on him. As so often in such cases, the victim, gruesomely murdered because she was thought to be a witch, was an elderly woman.

Read judgment

The municipality of Windhoek has come in for serious criticism by Namibia’s Supreme Court for ‘deplorable’ abuse of power and acting outside the rule of law in such a way as to warrant the ‘severe censure’ of the court.

Read judgment

This new judgment illustrates how Namibia’s highest court is determined to protect media freedom, given its constitutional importance in that country. But behind the theoretical questions lie contested facts concerning the fate of three elephants, and a defamation case against the Namibian Sun, arising out of this dispute.