Search

The article discusses issues of sexual harassment in the workplace with an emphasis on educational institutions. As the regulatory instruments are usually institution-specific, the regulatory instruments in two educational institutions in South Africa were chosen for illustrative purposes. Through critical and analytical methods, the paper explores the reporting requirements, the impact of power dynamics on speedy reporting, and the motive for sexual harassment complaints. The extant relevant judicial decisions were judiciously deployed to lend credence to the position adopted by the authors. The paper concludes that the decision-makers should exercise caution so that the innocent are not vilified on a hoax complaint on account of society’s justified disdain for the seeming prevalence of sexual harassment incidents in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creditors are important stakeholders in the effective running of a company’s business. They are, however, vulnerable as they are not always in a position to control how credits extended to the debtor company, which are assimilated into the company’s capital, are used. Such funds could be lost when the company fails to meet its obligations under the credit agreement. The propensity for such development heralds the common law and statutory interventions through varying protective mechanisms for creditors against debtor companies. The article explores South African’s approach to the concept of a solvency and liquidity test as a mechanism for the protection of a company’s creditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spawned human rights challenges. This article recounted the experiences of the victims through anecdotal evidence and analysed them in the human rights context. The paper found that the victims of the disease are ostracised by their families and communities. The article also discussed the remedies available to the victims both by way of fundamental right enforcement and under general civil claims. The paper concluded that the exclusion of the victims from the benefits enjoyed by other members of the community on account of their health status amounts to discrimination which is prohibited under human rights precepts. Such conducts instil fear and anxiety and could deter the victims from voluntarily disclosing their health status, which would invariably aggravate the spread of the disease in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litigation arising from medical negligence have continued to witness an incremental trajectory in the contemporary South African medical jurisprudence. As the number of claims continue to rise, so also does the financial expense in the form of cost of litigation on the part of the litigants and damages paid by the healthcare personnel and government agencies in successful cases. Such expense, however, palls into oblivion when compared with the reputational damage attendant such negligent conducts on the parts of both the healthcare personnel and the healthcare institutions. On the positive side, however, is that the growing instances of such claims have brought to the fore the need to interrogate the reasons and seek solutions with a view to attaining a more efficient health service delivery system in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest by states to contain the spread of the Covid-19 has led to the adoption of extraordinary measures to deal with the extraordinary situation. Some of those measures have the tendency to impact on the citizens' right to healthcare as protected by the domestic laws of such states and by the relevant international instruments. The paper examines the impact of the responses by the governments in Nigeria and China to the Covid-19 pandemic to ascertain the extent to which the right to healthcare of citizens are respected, and concludes that the governments in the respective countries failed to fulfil their obligations to their citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies raise capital by inviting subscriptions for their shares. It is the capital that guarantees the company's commercial security. Creditors look up to the capital as security for advances made by them to the company. Shareholders see the capital as the only distributable funds available to them in the event of the company being wound up. Capital ensures that returns in the form of dividends are provided to the shareholders for their investments. But capital can only be raised where subscribers pay for their shares unassisted by the company. The common law frowns at the giving of financial assistance by the company for the subscription of its shares. Law makers in different jurisdictions have followed suit by enacting statutory provisions placing restrictions on the granting of financial assistance by the company for the purchase of its shares. This article examines, through comparative analysis, the evolving statutory trends in the United Kingdom and South Africa geared at ensuring the protection of the company's capital and the creditors and argues that the lowering of the common law threshold of prophylactic prohibition and the abolition in South Africa of criminalisation of financial assistance by the company is in tandem with commercial realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the effect of company law in the United Kingdom on corporate constitutions in South Africa, Lesotho, and Nigeria. Topics mentioned include an overview of relevant caselaw, questions raised by the British attorney Lord Wedderburn of Charlton on the enforceability of constitutions, and the rights of company directors.

The article discusses the issue on the unfair prejudice remedy for the minority shareholders who were deprived of judicial interference in corporate management. It notes that several legislation from various jurisdictions provide alternative remedies for the shareholder claims including section 120 of the Companies Act of 1948 in Great Britain and Lesotho Companies Act 25 of 1967. These statutes attempt to identify the wrongs where the action of minority shareholders could be predicated.