Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
on appeal from north gauteng high court, pretoria (baqwa aj sitting as court of first instance): the appeal is dismissed with costs including those of two counsel where so employed. judgment lewis ja(maya, malan and shongwe jja and zondi aja concurring): [1] mrs emily valente owned immovable property in gauteng. she executed and signed a will in 1994, leaving her estate in equal shares to her two sons, evan valente and riccardo valente, the eighth respondent in the high court. at that stage the property formed part of the estate. some three years later she signed a codicil, bequeathing money to each of her grandchildren. [2] on 23 january 2001, the property was sold to a company, u valente africa (pty) ltd (the company), in liquidation at the time of the proceedings before the high court. mrs valentes signature on the deed of sale was forged by riccardo. a week later mrs valente died. an attorney (the seventh respondent a quo) and riccardo were appointed as co-executors of the will and as administrators of the estate. although nominated as an executor and administrator evan declined the appointments since he was living in the united kingdom at the time. the attorney resigned as an executor of the estate in may 2007. [3] at the time of mrs valentes death her estate comprised shares in the company, the property, cash and miscellaneous movable items. the directors of the company before her death were mrs valente, evan and riccardo. the respondents, mr r mendelow and mr l ledwaba .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
..... [14] i say peculiar, because s 16(2) of the inquests act required the magistrate to determine whether the death of the deceased was brought about by any act or omission amounting to an offence on the part of any person. ..... and that: the death [of the deceased] was brought about by an act prima facie amounting to an offence on the part of unknown persons. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
..... . [8] according to johnson an arrested person may not pay money to an investigating or arresting officer, except in certain circumstances such as, for example, where the suspect has been charged with a minor offence in respect of which an admission of guilt fine may be paid ..... . therefore, so it was argued, njonis conduct was unlawful and whatever material he had gathered for the television programme was valueless to prove the commission of any offence in the disciplinary hearing ..... . (z) commits any common law or statutory offence. 2 .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
..... at para 25 marais ja, writing for the court set out what has essentially become a guideline approach to sentences for listed offences as follows: [25] what stands out quite clearly is that courts are a good deal freer to depart from the prescribed sentences than has been supposed in some of the preciously decided cases and that it is they who ..... section 51 has limited but eliminated the courts discretion in imposing sentence in respect of offences referred to in part i of schedule 2 (or imprisonment for other specified periods for offences listed in other part of schedule 2). b. ..... the appellant, iain cameron mclaggan, was convicted in the high court, grahamstown (goosen j) of one count of rape in the contravention of s 3, read with s 1, 56(1), 57(1), 58, 59 and 60 of the criminal law (sexual offences and related matters) amendment act 32 of 2007. ..... neither would the imposition of the prescribed minimum sentence be disproportionate to the offence itself and the circumstances in which this offence was committed. ..... she was referred to the paterson police station because it had jurisdiction over the area where the alleged offence occurred. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
..... by allowing the first respondent to use the property as it did, the second respondent was committing an offence. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
on appeal from: south gauteng high court, johannesburg (moshidi j sitting as court of first instance): 1. the appeal is upheld with costs, such costs to include the costs of two counsel. 2. the order of the court below is set aside and substituted as follows: 1. it is declared that the first, second and third respondents failed to comply with the prescribed statutory requirements and procedures in arriving at the decision on 21 may 2009 to impose a rate of r 0.0154 in the rand on the value of business, industrial and commercial properties. 2. it is declared that in the future the first respondent is obliged to comply with the provisions of the local government: municipal systems act 32 of 2000, the local government: municipal finance management act 56 of 2003 and the local government: municipal property rates act 6 of 2004 when it materially amends a proposed budget after it has been tabled and advertised for public comment. 3. the first, second and third respondents are ordered to pay the costs of the application, such costs to include the costs of two counsel. judgment southwood aja (dissenting as to the order only) [1] this appeal is concerned with the levying of property rates of 1,54 cents in the rand in terms of the local government: municipal property rates act 6 of 2004 (the rates act) on business, commercial and industrial properties (collectively referred to as business properties) by the council of the city of johannesburg metropolitan municipality (the council) .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal
..... [33] as grogan notes in his dismissal,10the lras code of good practice encourages employers to adopt disciplinary measures other than dismissal and, in the case of less serious offences to follow a system of graduated discipline.11this principle was applied when professor ram recognised that not all of the affected employees may have realised the seriousness of their actions and professor van niekerk, against ..... mr ngalwanaalso contended that in dismissing the ten employees and not the others who had committed a similar offence, the respondent had been inconsistent and that this, too, had been unfair. ..... [26] in the alternative to his submissions that the dismissals had been automatically unfair, mr ngalwanareferred to the fact that the employers disciplinary code lists deliberate rudeness to a divisional manager or general manager as examples of minor offences. ..... ) apologised to professor ram, (iv) undertook in future to use the grievance procedures provided for in both the staff policy document and the lra and (v) agreed to receive a final written warning, valid for 12 months for a similar offence. .....
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on appeal from:western cape high court (henney j sitting as court of first instance): 1. the appeal is upheld with costs including the costs of two counsel. 2. the order of the court below is set aside and in its stead is substituted the following: 1 it is ordered in terms of s 163(2)(f)(i) of the companies act 71 of 2008 that: 1..1 mr b j manca sc, a senior advocate practising at the cape bar, and mr louis strydom, a senior chartered accountant (sa) of pricewaterhouse coopers inc, are appointed independent directors of seena marena investments (pty) ltd. 2. the independent directors appointed in terms of paragraph 1.1 of this order shall have the sole right, in their absolute discretion, to the exclusion of any other directors nominated by the shareholders of seena marena investments (pty) ltd, to determine whether an investigation into the affairs of seena marena investments (pty) ltd, in the light of the complaints made on behalf of grancy property limited, is necessary and if so to conduct such an investigation. 3. the said independent directors may not be removed as directors save by a unanimous vote of the shareholders of seena marena investments (pty) ltd or an order of the high court, having jurisdiction. 4. the independent directors shall constitute the board of directors of seena marena investments (pty) ltd together with such directors as each of the shareholders may appoint to the board save that each shareholder shall be entitled to appoint only one director. 5. .....
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..... close his case without testifying or to enter the witness-box in his defence or to call other evidence in his defence may well have to be informed not just by the evidence implicating him in the commission of the offence charged and the strength or weakness of the prosecutions case but also by what is contained in an extra-curial statement that has in any event been disavowed by its maker in evidence. ..... [36] the decision in r v spinks [1982] 1 all er 587 (ca) at 589d-e is similarly instructive: in the judgment of this court the offence with which the appellant was charged and the means of establishing it do not provide any exception to the universal rule which excludes out of court admissions being used to provide evidence against a co- ..... it might appear odd that, in the light of the evidence given by the two co-defendants themselves, one should go free while the other is convicted, proof must precede conviction, and in our judgment the offence charged, while proved against mills, was not proved against rhodes. ..... where several persons are accused of an offence, and one of them makes a confession or an admission, that confession or admission is evidence only against the ..... of an admission made extra-curially by any person in relation to the commission of an offence shall, if such admission does not constitute a confession of that offence and is proved to have been voluntarily made by that person, be admissible in evidence against him at criminal proceedings in relation to that offence. .....
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..... the nature and seriousness of the criminal act itself, as well as all relevant personal and other circumstances relating to the offender which could have a bearing on the seriousness of the offence and the culpability of the offender and that consequently the length of punishment must be proportionate to the offence.15 [122] turning to the appellants personal circumstances, he is a first offender, married with two children and was 58 years of age when sentenced (he is now 62 years old) ..... [125] all save one of the convictions upheld by this court are for fraud, which by its very nature is always a grave and ugly offence.19it was argued on behalf of the appellant that his criminal actions were motivated not by personal greed but by his undoubted passion for the company he had founded and a misplaced desire to attempt to support it in times ..... furthermore s 84(1) of the criminal procedure act 51 of 1977 lays down that a charge shall set forth the relevant offence in such manner and with such particulars as to the time and place at which the offence is alleged to have been committed and the person, if any, against whom and the property, if any, in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed, as may be reasonably sufficient to inform the accused of the nature of the ..... further provided that upon breach of the section, every director or officer of such a company was guilty of an offence unless it was shown that he or she had not been a party to the contravention. .....
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