Editorial: Women’s Month in the courts
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Every year, August is marked as Women’s Month in South Africa. It grew out of the yearly August 9 national holiday. On that day in 1956, some 20 000 women joined in a protest march to the capital, Pretoria. They were petitioning against the apartheid era ‘pass laws’ that forced black people to carry a document allowing them to ‘pass’ into a ‘white area’. Now that day has grown into something much bigger with the whole month set aside to mark, celebrate, protest or inform about issues related to women.
The all-women production team of Jifa’s weekly newsletter will mark this special month by highlighting a judgment from an African jurisdiction each week in August. We will choose a decision because it shows the judge engaging with issues that affect women in a way that highlights a problem, celebrates an achievement etc.
If you know of any judgment that would fit this bill, and that was delivered in the last few months, why don’t you email it to us, explaining very briefly why you feel the judgment should be highlighted. We might well use it in the newsletter! Click here to email us the judgment and your motivation |
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 Judge slams domestic violence, femicide and urges tougher sentences
 The first judgment chosen as part of Jifa’s Women’s Month focus is from Eswatini. It deals with the murder of a young woman who had a young child, now an orphan. What makes this judgment on sentence different from many others we read each week, is the comments by the presiding judge, Titus Mlangeni. Many judges handle cases of violence against women as though they were traffic offences, with no comment on the impact of such crimes on the whole of society. Judge Mlangeni, however, speaks about the prevalence of domestic violence and the need for men to learn that they should walk away from disappointments in love rather than physically acting out their anger. He also says the time has come to increase sentences in such cases because domestic violence has become such a problem. If you were a member of the girl’s family, or a woman or girl living in Eswatini, and you heard this judgment, you would feel the judge understood the constant pain and the fear you suffered. If you were a man, you would also feel the impact of his words.
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Unilateral salary hike by Uganda's MPs ‘unconstitutional' - highest court
 Uganda’s highest court says MPs act unconstitutionally when they give themselves salary hikes. Instead, the government is supposed to introduce proposals for increases, as the costs of the increases are charges on the country's Consolidated Fund. The court’s seven judges said a section of the law that appears to let MPs decide these issues without government involvement, is unconstitutional. It had to be removed because, if left on the statute book, ‘it is bound to be used by Parliament to violate the constitution.’
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Planned changes to Zambia’s constitution ‘infringe judicial independence’
 Zambia’s ruling Patriotic Front government is in the process of piloting wide-ranging changes to the country’s constitution into law. The proposed amendments have drawn considerable criticism from political opponents of the PF on grounds of poor drafting, infringement of individual and community rights and of threatening judicial independence, among others. They are also under fire from local and international legal and human rights organisations.
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Give us soft copies – or fall hard
ANM v FPA
High Court, Machakos, Kenya
This Kenyan case concerns an earlier court order to undergo a DNA test to establish paternity. At the end of his decision, Judge George Odunga changed subject slightly. The Civil Procedure Act was intended to facilitate the speedy resolution of disputes, he said. The court’s direction that lawyers and parties must file ‘soft copies’ of the pleadings and submissions was intended to help speed things. When they failed to obey these directions, as in this case, there would be consequences.
‘It amounts to a failure to comply with a statutory mandate which may call for a penalty in costs or deprivation of costs even where (this) would have been granted. This court has in fact warned counsel that since the duty to furnish soft copies falls squarely on the shoulders of counsel, the right person to take responsibility for such failure is counsel and not the party who it cannot be contended instructed counsel not to comply with the court’s directions in such circumstances. Accordingly, the 1st Respondent will bear the costs of this petition.’
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Lawyers ‘gone for burial’
Kasande v Uganda
Constitutional Court, Kampala, Uganda
This case, heard by the Constitutional Court in Uganda, concerns corruption charges. It was referred by the Chief Magistrate’s Court to the Constitutional Court where some of the resulting judgment was spent outlining the delays that had occurred in the earlier stages of the matter.
After several postponements, the trial magistrate had granted the prosecution ‘one last adjournment’, the Constitutional Court noted.
‘On 30 March 2009, when the matter came up for hearing, court adjourned the hearing to 7 April 2009 because the trial magistrate had a meeting at State House. However, the matter could not proceed for hearing on 7 April 2009 because the accused persons’ lawyers had gone for burial.’
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RIP Seychelles Justice Prithviraj Fekna
 Justice Prithviraj Fekna, who served on the Seychelles Court of Appeal, died unexpected this week. He had been sworn into office as a non-resident member of the appeal court on 27 June this year. Previously he had been a member of the Supreme Court of Mauritius.
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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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Environmental Law Course - 26 August - 30 August 2019
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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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