Frequent postponements are frustrating and emotionally draining for both the accused and accuser By Kelly Vinett and Saam Niami Jalinous The magistrate, prosecutor, and two bailiffs joke with one another as they rush through cases at Court 16 at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. Sexual offence cases come here first, a court which deals with contact cases such as murder, assault, and rape. There...

Upper Xhwili near Mthatha has no electricity, piped clean water or decent roads By Chumani Mazwi Residents of Upper Xhwili village have been waiting since 1998 for electricity, access to clean water, and proper roads. The villagers say they have raised these issues with five successive councillors, but there is no progress. Upper Xhwili is 40km outside of Mthatha. Before the villagers were...

“The courts had spoken. We had to do it,” says Deputy Minister of Home Affairs By GroundUp correspondent The Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office was officially re-opened on Friday by Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba. The province has been without such a facility since Home Affairs unilaterally closed it in 2011. Following years of legal action, public outcry and civil society activism,...

Court dismisses application with punitive costs By John Yeld The government has lost an attempt to side-step a High Court challenge to its controversial decision to allow coal mining in a protected area in the threatened Mpumalanga grasslands. On Wednesday, Judge Norman Davis of the Pretoria High Court dismissed the state’s application to postpone indefinitely a review application being brought by a coalition...

Case is significant for future of South Africa’s protected areas By John Yeld While much of her work was widely admired and supported, the legacy of the late Edna Molewa, who was Environmental Affairs minister, is not uncontested. And perhaps nowhere more so than in her decision to allow a new coal mine to be developed within a critical biodiversity and water...

Bongile Joni pleads guilty, sentenced to an effective eight years in prison By Kim Reynolds Bongile Joni pleaded guilty on Thursday in the Strand Magistrate’s Regional Court to the murder of Noxolo Xakeka. Magistrate Franselien Mouton sentenced him to an effective eight years in prison. The murder took place on 1 January. Joni gave his version of events to the court on Thursday:...

Pretoria High Court orders banks to use magistrates’ courts when acting against debtors 4 October 2018   By Ciaran Ryan A full bench of the Pretoria High Court ruled last week that magistrates’ courts should be the first port of call for banks seeking judgment against their clients. On Wednesday we explained the arguments in the case that dealt with access to justice for distressed...

Pretoria High Court finds that access to justice is denied by dragging cases into high courts 3 October 2018   By Ciaran Ryan The Pretoria High Court struck another blow on behalf of distressed debtors last week. A full bench of three judges ruled that magistrates’ courts should be the first port of call for financial institutions seeking judgment against their clients, where matters fall...

He says he can never forgive the state By Aidan Jones “Twelve years,” he says, slapping his hands together and shaking his head. “Twelve years. Twelve years.” Samuel Ntshavheni Nndwambi was a carpenter and breadwinner for his wife and three children. One late afternoon in early 2006, Samuel was completing a table for a client in his home carpenter workshop in Thohoyandou when...