Legal

The introduction of the new regulations in the Social Development Grant Act is commended and we stress the crucial role this will have in ensuring the lawful allocation of government funds. It can be emphasised that government needs to do more to hold citizens accountable for their own progress and own development.

Read our exclusive cover story titled Deepfakes & legal evidence – how will the quest for authenticity be navigated? by Patrick Bracher, Director, and...

The Western (including South African) judiciary is a peculiar thing. To defy a judge is to commit an offence to society so great that most people do not even consider the merits of the defiance, and rush immediately to demand punishment. The recent controversy around Judge Mandlenkosi Motha is a case in point.

A recent judgment by the Labour Court confirms the current untenable position that many working-class South Africans find themselves in - being unable to retire comfortably at the standard retirement age, thus necessitating working beyond retirement.

Online betting in South Africa is a thriving business, expected to become a billion-dollar sector within four years. But there are risks, especially as the digital era makes it easy to forge identities. Betting companies must manage fraud risks and honour legislation, avoid financial and reputational damage, and continue investing in customer relationships.

In a move that could serve as catalyst for the reshape of South Africa's cannabis landscape, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) recently passed the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill [B 19B-2020] (the Bill).

The earnings threshold will increase to R254,371.67 with effect from 1 April 2024, entitling employees falling below the threshold to stricter protections in terms of labour legislation.

The rail sector in South Africa is at a breaking point and urgent action is required. From a freight perspective, Transnet's incapacity to dispatch locomotives is at an all-time high. The National Logistics Crisis Committee estimates that the country's macro logistics system loses circa ZAR1 billion a day.

The New York Times (NYT) is taking on tech giant Microsoft (MS) and The Disrupters - the OpenAI group of companies (OAI) - in the New York District Court, alleging that MS and OAI are copying and using NYT's work and "massive investment in journalism" without permission or payment to create generative AI (GenAI) tools and products, like Microsoft's Co-Pilot (formerly Bing Chat) and OpenAI's ChatGPT, that compete with it. This, according to NYT, translates into vast savings and profits for MS and OAI.

If your image (physical image, voice, signature, likeness, etc.) has been used without your consent for commercial purposes, especially in the absence of a contract, proving your case in court would be difficult because South African law does not recognise the existence of a distinct image right.