Author: Tania Broughton

At least 250,000 people have waited up to seven years for Home Affairs to process their late birth registration applications. Without birth certificates, children face numerous complications in life and struggle to access schools and grants. The Children’s Institute wants the Western Cape High Court to declare the Department of Home Affairs’ delays unconstitutional. At least a quarter of a million people have been waiting years for their applications for late birth registration to be processed. And this is a conservative estimate, the Children’s Institute says in its papers filed with the Western Cape High Court. The court application seeks…

Lekalinga, a Serbian-based company that teamed up with local partners to bid for the fourth lottery licence, has taken Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau to court. The company seeks to set aside the minister’s decision to award the fourth lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings. Lekalinga wants the minister to produce the reasons for his decision in 15 days. The company wants to know if the minister assessed whether any political party or political office-bearers hold a direct or indirect financial interest in Sizekhaya. A losing bidder for the fourth lottery licence has filed an application in the…

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is losing millions in default court judgments. A default court judgment occurs when the respondent, the RAF in this case, fails to defend against a claim. The RAF often does not send lawyers to court, and is therefore unrepresented. Then, when the RAF applies to rescind (annul) these default judgments, it often loses, incurring further costs. The RAF is failing in its constitutional duties, said Judge Jan Pretorius. A judge of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has blasted the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for its “chaotic approach to litigation” which has resulted in huge…

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has obtained a preservation order from the Special Tribunal freezing R25-million in assets linked to a corrupt National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant. The order, granted in April by Judge Margaret Victor, freezes two luxury properties and a high-value Powerstar drill/cleaner from funds that were meant for the 2016 Rio Olympics “Roadshow Send-Off” campaign. The judgment comes after an SIU investigation into a coordinated scheme involving the Mshandukani Foundation, a non-profit organisation registered just four months before receiving the grant. In July 2016, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) applied for funding on…

Current policy which bars prisoners from using personal computers in their cells to study is unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court has ruled. In a unanimous ruling the court directed the National Commissioner of Correctional Services to revise the policy. Meanwhile inmates must be allowed to use personal computers without modems, the court said. The judges upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal in November 2023, which the Minister of Correctional Services and the National Commissioner had challenged. In a unanimous ruling, the Constitutional Court has declared that barring prisoners from using personal computers in their cells for studying, is…

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) wants to join court proceedings in which a journalist and three “whistleblowers” were barred from making allegations against ARTsolar. The IDC had funded ARTsolar for R90-million to build a solar panel manufacturing plant in South Africa but it has been alleged that the company is importing panels from China rather than manufacturing them locally. Under the court order, IDC is prohibited from speaking to the “whistleblowers”. The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) has launched an urgent application to join court proceedings through which a journalist and three “whistleblowers” have been gagged from making…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is standing firm on his decision to sign a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe corruption at the National Lotteries Commision (NLC). Ramaphosa has filed a personal affidavit in a court application launched in the Pretoria High Court by Alfred Nevhutanda, former chairman of the NLC, in which Nevhutanda seeks to review and set aside the proclamation signed in October 2020. That application gave the SIU authority to investigate “maladministration” in the NLC from January 2014 to October 2020 which, Ramaphosa notes in his opposing affidavit, “falls in the main under [Nevhutanda’s] tenure”. The…

Former National Lotteries Commission chief operations officer Phillemon Letwaba argues that the Special Tribunal lacks the authority to order the forfeiture of assets. The SIU obtained an interdict to stop the sale of Letwaba’s farm in Limpopo purchased for R4.7-million with money allegedly diverted from lottery grants. Letwaba’s challenge follows former NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda’s attempt to have the SIU investigation declared unlawful. Former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chief operations officer Phillemon Letwaba is challenging the constitutionality of the Special Tribunal’s power to order the freezing and forfeiture of assets deemed to be the proceeds of crime. Letwaba’s legal…

Suspended National Lotteries Commission (NLC) legal boss Gugulethu Yako has failed to appeal a high court ruling that she must face disciplinary action. Johannesburg Acting High Court Judge Johan Moorcroft described Yako’s bid to set aside the ruling of her disciplinary hearing as a “delay tactic”. He dismissed Yako’s application to appeal and ordered that she pay the costs of the application. Suspended National Lotteries Commission (NLC) legal boss Gugulethu Yako has failed in an application to appeal an earlier high court ruling that she must face disciplinary proceedings against her. Read the refusal to grant leave to appeal here. In…

The Western Cape High Court has ruled that a bequest to a white supremacy group would promote racial hatred. Judge Rosheni Allie said the bequest by Grantland Michael Bray to Boerelegioen would be used for illegal training purposes which violated constitutional values. The judge said common law provided for a declaration of unenforceability in a will where a provision would fund unlawful and discriminatory activities. Evidence was that Bray was paranoid about an “impending white genocide” before his death in 2022 and added the bequest to his will. A bequest by a Cape Town man to a white supremacy group…