This is up from 87 at the end of 2018 By Liezl Human The South African judiciary published a national report on reserved judgments across all South African courts, dated 30 September. The report shows that at the beginning of the fourth term of 2019 there were 103 reserved judgments outstanding for longer than six months and, overall, 683 reserved judgments outstanding. A previous report by the...

AMCU challenged sections of the Labour Relations Act By Wilmien Wicomb When a union negotiates a retrenchment agreement with an employer, should this be binding on employees who are not members of the union? The Constitutional Court ruled on this last week. The court found that in some circumstances the answer is yes. An employer can finalise a retrenchment agreement with a majority union...

City of Tshwane asked to provide land suitable not only for living but for work  By Elna Schütz Wastepickers facing eviction from land in Centurion are arguing that the City of Tshwane must provide not only alternative housing but space for their materials. The group of 200, some of whom have lived and worked in the area for 15 years or more, want...

Makhanda High Court declares new school admission policy unconstitutional By Geoffrey Allsop Eastern Cape children who were prevented from attending school because they do not have identity documents won an important victory in the Makhanda High Court in December. Read the judgment In 2016, the Eastern Cape Basic Education Department introduced a new admission policy which said public schools would only receive funding for...

Ban on political activity is “illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to the UN convention on refugees” By Tania Broughton South Africa’s new rules governing asylum seekers and refugees could easily have been drafted by the Trump administration, says Sharon Ekambaram of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). The regulations, which forbid refugees and asylum seekers from engaging in any political activity, even if it concerns...