The question of how employers should treat employees working beyond a normal or agreed retirement age in South Africa has become increasingly complex, particularly in light of a December 2024 sharply divided judgment of the Constitutional Court, in a 4:1:4 split.
The dispute at the heart of this Constitutional Court case revolved around section 187(2)(b)
In this significant, thoughtful and considered judgment, on which the Constitutional Court will no doubt have the final say, the court found that criminal indictments which include the crime of apartheid as a reference to the crime under customary international law in terms of Section 232 of the Constitution, and not the crime of apartheid
At the end of April 2025, the Constitutional Court set aside a policy directive by the prisons authorities that prohibited the use of personal computers in cells for the purposes of further education in circumstances where the use is reasonably required for such further education. In order to avail themselves of the benefits of this
On 24 March 2025, the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal of Ekapa Minerals (Pty) Ltd and set aside the order of the High Court. The appeal related to whether the Constitutional Court could interfere with the High Court’s exercise of its true discretion under section 172(1)(b) of the Constitution by deciding to grant a retrospective
The Constitutional Court’s unanimous April 2025 judgment in Prithilal v Akani Egoli (Pty) Ltd and Another restates the narrow circumstances in which a court may depart from the ordinary party‑and‑party scale and award costs on the punitive attorney‑and‑client scale. Ms Prithilal, although successful in joining Akani to her delictual action, had been ordered by the
In April 2025 the Constitutional Court invalidated the legislature prohibition on staff members of municipalities holding political office in a political party and confined the prohibition to municipal managers or managers directly accountable to municipal managers.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union challenged the provision in the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act of 2000 prohibiting
On occasion an employee joins a trade union which operates outside of the industry in which their employer operates. The Constitutional Court held that such a trade union does not have the power to represent the employee in CCMA and Labour Court proceedings if the registered scope of the trade union precludes the employee from
In October 2024, the Constitutional Court found that a claim by the now deceased person for reinstatement of her medical scheme membership which had been cancelled for non-disclosure could be transmitted to her estate.
Her claim was for the medical scheme to honour its contractual commitments. If upheld, the claim had a direct financial interest
In October 2024 the Constitutional Court, although dealing with a medical schemes claim, pertinently confirmed that where an insurer avoids a policy on the grounds of misrepresentation or non-disclosure whether under the common law or the Short-term Insurance Act, the insurer has to prove that the non-disclosure of a material information induced it to enter
On 2 October 2024, the Constitutional Court dismissed an application for leave to appeal brought by a municipality against an order directing it to pay compensation for security services rendered pursuant to an unlawful tender process.
The municipality had extended a contract with a security services provider without following a lawful tender process. Despite