Intelligence

A recent Gauteng High Court judgment confirms that mandatory court-annexed mediation cannot be avoided simply because parties are hostile toward each other or believe the process will be futile. The court ordered an uncooperative defendant to participate in mediation, establishing that only exceptional circumstances will excuse parties from the process introduced by the Directive and Protocol.

The Supreme Court of Appeal examines whether a pension fund can successfully rescind a default judgment when its absence from proceedings resulted from internal administrative failures. The case explores the boundaries between procedural error and voluntary default, testing whether gross negligence in responding to legal process can be excused by the strength of a potential defence.

A KwaZulu-Natal High Court judgment dismisses an aspiring legal practitioner's application for leave to appeal after she was found to have made deliberate false statements and material non-disclosures under oath during her admission application. The court's decision reinforces the profession's unwavering standards for honesty and integrity, distinguishing between negligent omissions and deliberate dishonesty in the admission process.

The Supreme Court of Appeal's recent judgment in the MV Haralambos case has sparked significant debate in South Africa's maritime community by upholding a vessel arrest based largely on commercial database evidence. The decision addresses the challenging question of proving common control between ship-owning companies when beneficial ownership information is not publicly available, potentially reshaping the evidentiary landscape for associated ship arrests. At the heart of the controversy lies whether comme

A Constitutional Court decision has clarified a critical procedural question in South African administrative law: whether respondents can raise dispositive legal objections before producing the Rule 53 record in review proceedings. The ruling addresses the tension between an applicant's right to supplement their case after receiving the administrative record and a respondent's ability to challenge the review on purely legal grounds at an early stage.

On the demand side, McKinsey expects a four-fold to six-fold increase in demand for African data centre capacity (to 1.5 to 2.2 GW) by 2030, which presents an investment opportunity of between...