Legal Eye for the Layperson

In my very short-lived but extensive experience of the Maintenance Courts, Gauteng, I have sadly become disappointed with what has recently transpired. Magistrates and Maintenance Officers from certain jurisdictions have taken an antagonistic approach towards "Interim Orders" and "Provisional Orders" for maintenance of a child pending finalisaton of those proceedings. This problem arose as a result of the Pents v Ilsley judgment out of the South Gauteng High Court where the Randburg Maintenance Court (and thus any other court following the same procedure) was penalised for issuing Subpoenas to Respondents for their " First Appearance " at court. This " First Appearance " is an informal inquiry before a Maintenance Officer in terms of Section 6 of the Maintenance Act. In terms of the Regulations to the Act, this process is indeed the incorrect procedure. The nature of a Subpoena in terms of the Act is for the the purposes of calling upon the...

Isn't it uncanny how there is an element of truth in justice but truth does not necessarily encompass justice? One can define truth as the conformity to fact or reality – which is synonymous with declarations of righteousness and freedom from falsehoods. In all material understandings of the concept of truth, the foundational meaning lies in objectiveness of fact. On the other hand, if one had to define justice, a key element in true (or natural) justice is honesty and conformity with truth and reality. Put simply, justice is the integrity in the dealings between men. It is the strict compliance with moral obligations toward humanity and the Divine Law. It is in fact the basis upon which human rights were created. And is it not fascinating how justice and truth link when it comes to human rights? In what instances have truth and justice been linked in the arena of international human rights? One of the most famous examples of this is the creation of Truth Reconciliation C...

By its very nature, the concept of maintenance should be quite easy to ascertain and acquire in law. A parent of a child is (especially, for the purposes of law, financially ) duty-bound and legally bound to support his or her child, whether natural or adopted parent. In a similar fashion, the law has created a set of reciprocal obligations between parents and children: children are equally bound to support their parents as parents are to support their children. In South Africa, especially because of,  inter alia , the high birth rare, the law has been geared with a fool-proof Maintenance Act , Regulations, and Court. This is primarily because the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa ("the Constitution") is the highest law in the land and therefore equality before the law is an entrenched value in respect of all law created and regulating the country. However, the Maintenance system, particularly in Gauteng, is a system which is now essentially defunct: it ...

The dilemma that has been bothering me is how can we level (if ever) the requirements of an accused’s right to a fair trial and justice ? See the example I have found which could potentially be a step forward. In South Africa, & perhaps in the UK as well, the general rules for the admissibility of Admissions/Confessions is that it has to be: Given freely & voluntarily With no threat/act of violence And no undue influence In additional, the evidence has to have been obtained in a constitutional manner, meaning: It was obtained in a way that didn’t infringe your rights ; or If it is admitted, it would not render the trial unfair or be detrimental to the administration of justice What I really want to discuss is the state of our law in relation to facts discovered in consequence of information given by the accused whether it be lawful or unlawful. The most common form of obtaining this evidence is through pointing out . The case of R v Sam...

UNDP's MDGs (South Africa) Using SA as an example... Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Achieve Universal Primary Education Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Reduce Child Mortality Improve Maternal Health Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and Other Diseases E nsure Environmental Sustainability Develop a Global Partnership for Development Let's discuss this for a moment, just before I have to go and write my paper. I want to draw your attention to the Declaration of the Right to Development (RTD) because within this declaration, there is an obligation to dedicate at least 0.7% of GDP to the goal of development. Most commonly experienced by LCDs, what incentives would you suggest for achieving this?

This site shares something of a new passion of mine. Human rights, in its entirety, is something that has both hindered & blossomed the world's growth. It has encouraged growth in personal autonomy, communal development, as well as strengthening the ends of justice. But it has also hindered growth by way of misinterpretation (and thus misapplication), and has been abused by perpetrators of justice. In this blog, I want to put a few things into a different, perhaps idealistic perspective, regarding human rights (HRs). My first attempt at doing this would be by highlighting the 2 most important reasons as to why we should be grateful to have them. IF it wasn't for HRs, we would not have many freedoms that are offered to us today. These include both Civil & Political rights (CPRs), as well as Economic, Social, & Cultural rights (ECSRs). A discussion on each will be given below. IF it wasn't for HRs, many of the conflicts experienced internal to specific coun...