Tag: High Court

The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that the current law regulating maternity leave, adoption leave and surrogacy leave in South Africa is unconstitutional and invalid, on the basis that it discriminates against different types of parents and violates their dignity and the interests of their children. 

All taxpayers should arrange their tax affairs to obtain the best advantage and to pay the least amount of tax. This is a right every taxpayer possesses, and well entrenched in South African and international tax law. However, this planning must be done within the constraints of what the law allows.

A claim  in the case of Joubert and Others v Louw (CIV APP RC 08/2022) [2023] ZANWHC 102 (22 June 2023) was dismissed by the High Court on the grounds that the respondent lacked the requisite legal standing to litigate on behalf of her husband who was the party to the contract sued on.

A few years ago, several well-known short-term insurance companies took legal action against an intermediary company due to the damages they incurred as a result of the intermediary's collapse. The intermediary, presently in liquidation, was responsible for the collecting and accounting of premiums owed to the insurers.

On 28 June 2023, the High Court handed down a landmark judgment where the decision by the Minister of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) not to extend the longstanding Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) after 31 December 2021 was found to be invalid, unlawful, and unconstitutional.

The now well-known Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) has a longstanding history since it was initially implemented by the Republic of South Africa as the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) in 2009. The objectives of the DZP were to provide Zimbabwean nationals who were in possession of fraudulently obtained immigration documents with amnesty, and to curb their deportation.

Trademark practitioners always get excited when the shape of a product finds itself at the centre of a trademark dispute. Although the shape of goods generally finds itself at the very bottom of the spectrum when it comes to distinctiveness and public perception, most trademark legislation worldwide allows for shapes to be registrable as trademarks.

The Certificate of Need (CON) provisions in the National Health Act 2003 will require doctors to apply for CONs for everything they do and plan to do, including opening a practice and medical equipment they want to use.

In the case of Keyhealth Medical Scheme v the Honourable Mr Justice SM Ngoepe N.O, the Registrar of Medical Schemes and William Reed, Case Number: A203/2021, a full bench of the Pretoria High Court held that prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs) must not be paid from a member's personal medical savings but must be paid from the medical scheme's PMB risk pool. 

The Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) wishes to announce that an appeal against a High Court decision that declared the Consumer Goods and Services Industry Code of Conduct valid has been withdrawn.