Investors beware — Public-interest considerations in merger review are significant: The Burger King matter

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

Note

Investors beware — Public-interest considerations in merger review are significant: The Burger King matter

Author: Jacqueline Church

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 454-466
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a2

Abstract

In South Africa, statutory competition law serves as a vehicle to address both traditional economic goals and broader social and political concerns. This is particularly apparent in the field of merger regulation, where public interests must be considered in the merger analysis. This note focuses on the so-called Burger King merger, which was notified to the Competition Commission and initially prohibited. Notably, this marks the first time since the inception of the Competition Act 89 of 1998 that an intermediate merger has been prohibited solely on public-interest grounds. However, the Tribunal subsequently cleared the merger, but only after the merging parties agreed to accept the onerous conditions imposed upon them.

Recent South African marriage reform proposals: Confused and conflicted?

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

Note

Recent South African marriage reform proposals: Confused and conflicted?

Authors: Brigitte Clark & Belinda van Heerden

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Associate Professor, School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 467-482
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a3

Abstract

This note examines recent marriage reform proposals from the Department of Home Affairs, namely the Draft Marriage Bill of 2022. Prior to this Bill, in January 2021, the South African Law Reform Commission (‘SALRC’) proposed a single marriage statute to reconcile the several enactments regulating marriage in South Africa. In March 2022, the Cabinet approved the White Paper on Marriages in South Africa, drafted by the Department of Home Affairs. The White Paper recognised that the legislation that regulates marriages in South Africa is not informed by an overarching policy based on constitutional values and the understanding of modern society dynamics. In this note, we argue that the Draft Marriage Bill, the publication of which was approved by the Cabinet in June 2023, is not only unconstitutional in some ways but is also, in certain respects, divergent from the White Paper preceding it and the earlier marriage reform proposals of the SALRC.

Judicial reliance on documents not established into evidence: Dispensing justice or injudicious overreach?

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

Note

Judicial reliance on documents not established into evidence: Dispensing justice or injudicious overreach?

Author: Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Kehrhahn

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Lecturer, Department of Procedural Law, University of Pretoria
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 483-495
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a4

Abstract

Documents make their way to the court file via numerous avenues. Courts sometimes rely on the contents of such documents, which are not established into evidence, to draw inferences and adjudicate disputes. The main reason for this practice is to buttress fraud committed against parties such as state organs because of their lackadaisical approach to litigation, knowing that the taxpayer foots the bill. Some courts go so far as to suggest that the court should employ an inquisitorial approach in matters involving state organs or even take a partisan approach. Noble as the court’s intentions hopefully may be, several policy decisions point to the undesirability of this practice. This note considers, first, the general rule that a document in the court file is inadmissible hearsay evidence until it is established into evidence; secondly, the reasons why a court would have regard to such non-evidence; thirdly, the policy reasons justifying the general rule; and, fourthly, the recent misplaced suggestion that documents may more readily be admitted into evidence under the common-law exception to the rule against hearsay evidence or under s 34(2) of the Civil Proceedings Evidence Act. Recommendations to remedy this objectionable practice conclude the note.

The treatment of facts in administrative-law review

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

ARTICLE

The treatment of facts in administrative-law review

Authors: Glenn Penfold & Cora Hoexter

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Partner, Webber Wentzel; Visiting Adjunct Professor, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Part-time Professor, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 496-525
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a5

Abstract

Despite the practical importance of facts and evidence to judicial review, scant attention has been given to these themes in South African administrative law. This accords with a tendency to neglect factual questions in public-law scholarship more generally. With reference to the two main pathways to judicial review, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 and the constitutional principle of legality, this article explores the South African courts’ treatment of facts in administrative-law review and offers suggestions as to how some factual questions might best be approached in future. First, the article considers two grounds of review that relate to facts in an explicit way and that illustrate the courts’ supervision of facts relied upon by administrators in the course of their decision-making. Secondly, courts sometimes scrutinise the expected impact of an administrative act or the administrator’s consideration of its benefits and costs, especially when the review challenge is based on the substantive grounds of rationality or reasonableness. Thirdly, in relation to remedy the article examines the relevance of facts and information when a court is deciding whether to set aside administrative action and whether an order of substitution is justified.

Realizing South Africa’s contribution to the global biodiversity framework’s area-based targets — The potential impact of new screening trends linked to strategic infrastructure projects, corridors and zones

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

ARTICLE

Realizing South Africa’s contribution to the global biodiversity framework’s area-based targets — The potential impact of new screening trends linked to strategic infrastructure projects, corridors and zones

Author: Alexander Paterson

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Professor, Institute of Marine and Environmental Law, University of Cape Town
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 526-553
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a6

Abstract

South Africa supported the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in December 2022. Area-based conservation measures form the focus of its Target 3, which calls on countries to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their territory of high biodiversity value is effectively conserved and managed in protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures by 2030. South Africa will need to more than triple its current land coverage within these areas in the next six years to achieve this target, and it has mapped priority focus areas for expansion to enable it to do so. The government is concurrently seeking to facilitate the roll-out of certain strategic infrastructure projects (‘SIPs’) linked to renewable energy, electricity grid and gas pipeline infrastructure within certain identified strategic infrastructure corridors and zones. Heavy reliance is placed on environmental impact assessment (‘EIA’) screening processes to subject activities linked to these SIPs undertaken in these corridors and zones to fast-track EIA approval processes or exclusions. Overlaying the maps depicting land of high biodiversity value, which is vital for achieving Target 3, with those outlining the strategic infrastructure corridors and zones, highlights potential conflict. This article critically analyses whether the new screening processes and associated tweaks to the general EIA and approval process linked to the SIPs have the potential to manage and mitigate these potential conflicts. The analysis highlights several challenges linked both to their foundation (including reliance on strategic environmental assessments and screening tools) and the array of procedural safeguards embedded within them. Cumulatively, these challenges hold the potential to undermine South Africa’s efforts to realize Target 3.

A critical appraisal of the parole system and its compliance with section 165 of the Constitution

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

ARTICLE

A critical appraisal of the parole system and its compliance with section 165 of the Constitution

Author: Loammi Wolf

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Research Associate, UFS Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 554-588
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a7

Abstract

In terms of state organisation under the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the administration of justice, which encompasses the powers of the judiciary and the prosecuting authority, is clearly demarcated from the executive. Section 165(5) of the Constitution explicitly states that an order or decision of a court ‘binds all persons to whom and organs of state to which it applies’. Sentencing is a judicial power, and the discretion to grant parole is also a judicial power. The legislature attempted to reform the 1959 parole system, which conferred parole powers upon executive state organs, with the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 but failed to align the granting of parole with the constitutional norms of ss 165 and 35(2) of the Constitution. Instead, the legislature conferred these powers upon executive state organs in contravention of s 165(4). In practice, the executive is therefore usurping judicial power, although s 165(3) proscribes any organ of state from interfering with the functioning of the courts. The granting of parole cannot be transformed into some kind of ‘administrative action’ of the executive taken under s 85(2) of the Constitution. The rights of detained sentenced offenders are protected by s 35(2) of the Constitution, which offers relief for unlawful detention. Section 33 upholds just administrative action and does not apply to criminal justice.

Propping up the crumbling city: Sectional title law, residential building governance and local government

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

ARTICLE

Propping up the crumbling city: Sectional title law, residential building governance and local government

Author: Marius Pieterse

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 589-621
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a8

Abstract

This article considers the interface between urban local government and sectional title, focusing specifically on the governance of residential apartment blocks in urban areas. It argues that the governance of sectional title schemes is currently wrongly depicted in South African law as being predominantly ‘private’ and contractual in nature. Based on a historical overview and qualitative case study of apartment building governance in centrally located suburbs in the city of Johannesburg, the article argues that building governance ought to be reconceptualised as being located primarily within a public-law paradigm, more specifically as forming part of the ‘special cluster of relationships’ that govern service delivery in South African cities and that give rise to public-law rights and responsibilities, ultimately sourced in the Constitution, for all the relevant parties. This would imply that the relationship between cities and sectional title schemes ought to be viewed as one between local government and rights-bearing stakeholders (rather than customers or residential subjects). Moreover, it would require that sectional title schemes’ governing agents be both adequately empowered and adequately held accountable, under administrative and constitutional law, for exercising their governance functions.

J Smit, E O Alemika, C Botha, G Ngantweni & G van Mollendorf (eds) Policing in Africa — Towards an African Epistemology (2022)

by | Aug 17, 2024 | SALJ, SALJ V141 I3 2024

BOOK NOTICE

J Smit, E O Alemika, C Botha, G Ngantweni & G van Mollendorf (eds) Policing in Africa — Towards an African Epistemology (2022)

Author: Elrena van der Spuy

ISSN: 1996-2177
Affiliations: Centre of Criminology, University of Cape Town
Source: South African Law Journal, Volume 141 Issue 3, p. 630-633
https://doi.org/10.47348/SALJ/v141/i3a10

Abstract

None

A brief overview of collective consumer redress in the European Union and South Africa and moving towards the increased use of consumer class action in South Africa (part 1)

by | Aug 11, 2024 | TSAR, TSAR 2024 I3

A brief overview of collective consumer redress in the European Union and South Africa and moving towards the increased use of consumer class action in South Africa – part 1*

Author: T Broodryk

ISSN: 1996-2207
Affiliations: Professor in Private Law, Stellenbosch University
Source: Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg, Issue 3, 2024, p. 410-426
https://doi.org/10.47348/TSAR/2024/i3a1

Abstract

Hierdie tweedelige artikel bied ’n oorsig oor kollektiewe verbruikersregstelling in die Europese Unie en in Suid-Afrika. Dit bekyk redes waarom in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg die bestaande klasaksie onderbenut bly as ’n meganisme om verbruikersgeskille mee op te los. In die afgelope sowat 30 jaar, is slegs twee sertifiseringsuitsprake in verbruikersklasaksies gelewer wat oor ’n geskil handel wat beheers word deur artikel 4(1) van die Wet op Verbruikersbeskerming. Die onlangs uitgereikte aanwysing oor kollektiewe regstelling om die kollektiewe belange van verbruikers te beskerm van die Europese Unie, is aanduidend dat dit vir die Europese Unie ’n prioriteit is om verbruikersbelange te beskerm en dat ’n omvattende benadering verkieslik is om kollektiewe verbruikersregstelling in lidlande te hanteer.
Die gebrek aan wetgewende regulering van die Suid-Afrikaanse klasaksie soos ook van die meganisme vir verbruikersklasaksie wat in die Wet op Verbruikersbeskerming vervat is, bring mee dat die klasaksie sedert die instelling daarvan meer as ’n dekade gelede, steeds onderbenut bly. Ander faktore wat tot die onderbenutting van die verbruikersklasaksie bydra, is onder meer die onduidelike formulering van die Wet op Verbruikersbeskerming, verbruikers se gebrek aan kennis ten aansien van hul regte ingevolge die Wet op Verbruikersbeskerming en die afwesigheid van voldoende hulpbronne om verbruikers in staat te stel om hulle regte af te dwing, onder meer deur middel van so ’n klasaksie. Op hulle beurt belemmer al hierdie faktore toegang tot geregtigheid, wat juis die primêre doel van Suid-Afrika se klasaksie is.
Deel een van hierdie tweedelige artikel handel oor die ontwikkeling van kollektiewe regstelling in die Europese Unie asook die besonderhede van die aanwysing betreffende kollektiewe regstelling van die Europese Unie. In deel twee oorweeg die outeur kollektiewe regstelling in Suid-Afrika. Daarin ondersoek die outeur verder die redes waarom Suid-Afrika se klasaksie onderbenut bly as ’n meganisme om verbruikersgeskille op te los. Die bespreking bevat ook voorstelle, onder andere gebaseer op die Europese ervaring, vir die toenemende benutting van die Suid-Afrikaanse verbruikersklasaksie. Dit behels, onder andere, die regulering van die meganisme deur wetgewing asook die bemagtiging van Suid-Afrikaners om hul sodoende in staat te stel om hul regte, soos vervat in die Wet op Verbruikersbeskerming, uit te oefen.
Die oogmerk van die outeur met die artikel is om ’n bydrae te lewer tot die toenemende benutting van die Suid-Afrikaanse verbruikersklasaksie om sodoende toegang tot geregtigheid vir Suid-Afrikaanse verbruikers te help bewerkstellig.