Author: Ground Up
By Ella Morrison Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola has approved a rescue plan for the South Africa’s Master’s Office. The dysfunction of the Master’s Office has reached a crisis point according to many in the legal fraternity. GroundUp has previously reported on the chaos at the Master’s Offices across the country. The Master’s Office is responsible for among other functions the administration of deceased estates, the setting up and liquidating of trusts, and managing the Guardian’s Fund to protect the interests of minors and people deemed legally incapable of administering their affairs. The rescue plan aims to fix backlogs, improve digitisation, increase capacity,…
By Raymond Joseph Pressure is mounting on the police and the Hawks to speed up investigations into grant corruption at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), and for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute people implicated in the looting. So far, only one person has been convicted in a case involving Lottery corruption. In 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to eight years in prison after the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court found he had “hijacked” a non-profit organisation and then used it to defraud the NLC of R1.5-million. In September 2020 a dossier of evidence involving four multimillion rand grants to dodgy non-profits, compiled by independent…
By Ashraf Hendricks Libraries are meant to be safe spaces where people, young and old, come to spend time to relax and learn. It’s where they should be able to read books in peace or access the internet to do personal projects or school assignments. But some Cape Town libraries have become the targets of petty criminals and are often forced to work under the threat of gang violence. One such library is in Hanover Park which has to close intermittently due to violence at the neighbouring taxi terminus. Lucien Ruiters, manager of the Hanover Park Library, says from the library…
A R6.3-million Rolls Royce Phantom and a R1-million property in an office park linked to former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda have been frozen by the Pretoria High Court. Both were bought using Lottery grant money. The car and the property are included in a preservation order granted by the court against several people on 28 September. The court order freezes four properties in Polokwane and Louis Trichardt, Limpopo, and three luxury vehicles, with a combined value of approximately R14-million. The order was granted in terms of the 1998 Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which aims “to combat organised crime,…
By Daniel Steyn Members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development were told on Wednesday that last week’s “system glitch” which affected thousands of social grant recipients was caused by software Postbank uses to pay grants. This “payment switch” software enables Postbank to connect to the BankservAfrica platform and process transactions through the Integrated Grant Payment System (IGPS). About 35% of grant recipients, a total of 6.3-million people, receive their money through this system, which pays the money into SASSA/Postbank cards. GroundUp has recently been given court documents describing some of Postbank’s troubles with the payment switch software, which date back…
By Tania Broughton A doctor involved in a questionable National Lotteries Commission (NLC) deal has failed in his bid for an interdict to stop the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) from what he claims is “harassment and intimidation”. Dr John Marite, who heads up Right Play Health Services, asked for a final interdict against the SIU, and one against Malwanda Solly Siweya from contacting him other than through his attorney, contacting his family and employees, and attending his private residence. He also sought an order that the SIU not share with anyone else any information about his interactions with it, including Siweya,…
Lawyers from 10 organisations representing victims of road accidents have issued a stinging memorandum on the “crisis” in the Road Accident Fund (RAF). They blame CEO Collins Letsoalo and call for a new board to be appointed. This comes after the deputy minister for transport and the RAF blamed lawyers for the RAF’s many woes, including the backlog in processing claims and long delays in paying out road accident victims. Lawyers from ten organisations have compiled a stinging joint memorandum about what they term a “crisis” at the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The signatories include the Law Society of South…
By Matthew Hirsch Professor Debra Roberts, the Durban-based climate researcher who is running for the position of chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that you no longer need to beat the climate drum; the impact of climate change is already here. Roberts will become the first woman from Africa to chair the IPCC, if she wins the elections next month in Nairobi. The IPCC is arguably the most important institution in the world tackling climate change. It is a United Nations body and every country on the planet is a member. It produces definitive scientific reports on climate change. …
By Tania Broughton A Johannesburg advocate, who defrauded the State Attorney out of more than R34-million – effectively earning almost R67,000 a day for 511 calendar days – has been disbarred. In a ruling handed down this week, Johannesburg High Court judges Motsomai Makume and Willem Wepener said Hassan Ebrahim Kajee’s conduct “exhibited serious flaws”, he had shown no remorse, and worse, he was still insisting that the Johannesburg Bar Council had no jurisdiction over him because he had resigned. He had also disobeyed a court order that he submit billing information to the council’s professional ethics committee. The Johannesburg Society…
By Paul Wani Lado The Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill currently being considered by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Mineral Resources and Energy is fatally flawed and should be rejected by South Africans. The bill will create a separation of the regulation of the upstream petroleum industry from the regulation of the mining industry, with the former regulated by the bill and the latter continuing to be regulated by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. This split is significant as it means a new regime for the regulation of South Africa’s nascent gas industry would come into effect. However, the…