Society ‘crying out for miracle’ to end brutality against women - judge
Over the last fortnight, the media in South Africa has been filled with particularly terrible crimes involving gender-based violence. In one response, an enormous crowd of women and men, dressed in black, protested outside the parliament buildings, demanding they be addressed by the President. Many were urging that a state of emergency be declared because of on-going femicide and rape. But the problem is endemic in the whole SADC region. And occasionally even the courts are moved to speak strongly on the issue. In one recent decision from Eswatini, for example, the judge hearing the matter spoke out more strongly than is usually the case against gender-based violence - and the need for a miracle to end it.
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Concern over impact of Botswana's appeal decision on 'refugees'
 When Botswana’s Court of Appeal delivered its recent decision on 709 people from Caprivi, living in the Dukwi refugee camp, the judgment came as a serious blow to the hopes of the refugees. It has also raised questions by the refugees and their supporters, local and international, about whether the court was correct in its approach. Less theoretically, the refugees are deeply concerned about the dangers that they believe await them once they are returned to Caprivi, something that now seems inevitable - as well as the impact on their children's education.
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Contempt confirmed against former top Seychelles judge
 Controversial former top Seychelles judge, Durai Karunakaran, has done it again. The disgraced jurist, embroiled in yet another legal dispute relating to his behaviour, has lost his appeal against a contempt of court finding. The contempt relates to a highly offensive insult he whispered into the ear of the public prosecutor during proceedings related to another matter involving the former judge. Karunakaran quit the bench earlier this year to avoid being impeached over misbehaviour, but judgments in pending cases involving him had not yet all been finalised.
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‘Dangerous practice’
S v Lameck
High Court, Namibia
Judge Christie Liebenberg
A number of witnesses needed for this trial were not in court, and the judge discovered that most of them had not been contacted.The judge chastised the prosecution and investigation teams for not having done more to locate and warn the witnesses. He also pointed out that many of the subpoenas issued by the prosecution had actually been invalid.
This would in particular apply to subpoenas forwarded to Mr Zambwe in the Ministry of Justice: Division Legal Services with the request to facilitate the presence of four Chinese nationals living in the Peoples Republic of China. In fact, the copies of subpoenas forwarded bear no stamp at all, rendering it invalid. Notwithstanding, according to the witness, this was the practice between the office of the Prosecutor-General and the Ministry of Justice. This practice is a dangerous one and should immediately be stopped as it is likely to create situations where the state could be held liable for damages suffered as a result of court process irregularly used and acted upon detrimental to others.
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State’s ‘absenteeism’ disrespectful to the court
Muhoozi and Kyoreko v Uganda
Supreme Court of Uganda
Judges Stella Arach-Amoko, Eldad Mwangusya, Rubby Opio Aweri, Faith Mwondha, Paul Mugamba
The Supreme Court was considering the appeal of two men convicted of murder but, inexplicably, the state was not represented at the hearing of the appeal. As the Supreme Court judges noted, however, a representative of the prosecution had been present at the pre-hearing conference and so he knew the date on which the matter would be argued.
No reason was advanced for absence (of the state’s representative) at the time of hearing. … We take exception to absenteeism of any party to court proceedings. Court’s orders are not made in vain. They must be respected. The absence of the respondent shows lack of respect to this court. We stress that the Directorate of Public Prosecution should take action to curb the habit whereby after cases are fixed for hearing its agents/representatives do not show up.
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Gender-based violence among the most severe human rights violations in southern Africa
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a threat to human security, peace and development, say SADC leaders. But until recently there had been no regional strategy on GBV.
Despite hard work to address this crisis in the region and further afield, the epidemic of violence has continued to worsen and claim the lives of innocent people, particularly women and girls. In the SADC region the level of violence was even higher than the global average. It was a serious impediment for efforts to achieve national, regional, continental and global development goals.
The ‘Regional Strategy and Framework of Action for Addressing Gender Based Violence: 2018 – 2030’, created to fill the gaps in regional planning on this crucial issue, is now available online.
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Useful Infographic from USAID on gender-based violence
 Members of the legal profession, judges among others, are often asked to speak in public. Since many of our readers are tech-savvy, we have an infographic for you this week, with symbols and signs, as well as some basic statistics, that could be useful to illustrate a PowerPoint presentation on gender-based violence.
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About Carmel Rickard
Carmel Rickard has written about the law, human rights, justice, judgements and judicial matters for many years. A former legal editor of The Sunday Times, South Africa's biggest newspaper, she is now a columnist on legal issues.
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JIFA is a partnership between the DGRU at UCT, the SACJF and ICJ-AFRICA, which provides university-certified short courses to judges in Africa.
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