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/ 19 February 2008

Delft evictions under way

Evictions have begun at the housing development in Delft illegally occupied by backyard dwellers, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign said on Tuesday morning. A Cape High Court judge on Monday refused the more than 1 000 squatters leave to appeal against an earlier eviction order.

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/ 18 February 2008

Court not swayed by Delft appeal application

The Cape High Court on Monday dismissed an application for leave to appeal against an eviction order that compelled illegal occupiers of unfinished homes in Delft on the Cape Flats to vacate their houses by 6pm last Sunday. Judge Deon van Zyl ruled late on Monday that the grounds for appeal were altogether without merit.

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/ 6 February 2008

Court chaos over Delft eviction order

Pandemonium broke out in the Cape High Court on Wednesday after Judge Deon van Zyl granted an order for the eviction of people illegally occupying houses still under construction in Delft on the Cape Flats. The homes are intended for residents at the Joe Slovo informal settlement, who are to be relocated to Delft.

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/ 3 January 2008

Najwa’s bail appeal postponed

The Cape High Court on Thursday postponed Najwa Pietersen’s second bail appeal to January 28, to be heard by a full bench instead of a single judge as initially planned. Pietersen is to go on trial in the Cape High Court for the alleged murder of her famous husband, Taliep.

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/ 13 December 2007

Joe Slovo ‘relocation’ in court’s hands

The proposed relocation of residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement is a bid to reverse century-old wrongs, the Cape High Court was told on Thursday. Cape Judge President John Hlophe was hearing an application by provincial authorities for permission to relocate the community, currently living in shacks alongside Cape Town’s N2 highway.

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/ 6 December 2007

Court to decide on bail for Najwa Petersen

The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town is to deliver judgement on Monday in the second bail application launched by Najwa Petersen, who goes on trial in the Cape High Court next year for the alleged murder of her famous husband, Taliep. Her senior counsel on Thursday urged the court to ”be bold and release her on bail.

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/ 30 November 2007

Dina Rodrigues applies for leave to appeal

Dina Rodrigues — jailed for life for the murder of six-month-old Jordan Leigh Norton — on Friday filed papers at the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal her conviction and sentence. The Cape High Court in June this year handed down life sentences to 26-year-old Rodrigues and two accomplices for the contract murder of baby Jordan.

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/ 29 November 2007

Court swayed by homeowner’s golf-ball misery

The Supreme Court of Appeal agreed on Thursday with a golf-estate homeowner that he is entitled to relief for badly aimed golf balls from the sixth hole at the Milnerton golf course. Nearly 900 golf balls had hit his home between 2003 and 2006. The court upheld an appeal by Alexander Simonis against a Cape High Court judgement.

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/ 23 November 2007

Student faces high-court trial for murder of parents

A gay psychology student who in July allegedly shot dead both his parents to spare them the grief of his own suicide, is to go on trial in the Cape High Court next year on two charges of murder. Grant Harris (23) on Friday made his seventh appearance in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, before magistrate Hafeeza Mohamed, since his arrest in August for the double murder.

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/ 22 November 2007

Murdered over a baseball cap

Minutes before being shot dead in an argument over a baseball cap, Godfrey Hendricks challenged his two alleged killers to take the cap from him by force. The two men then fetched a firearm from their car parked nearby. Two shots were fired, leaving Hendricks lying dead on the ground, the Cape High Court heard on Thursday.

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/ 21 November 2007

Court ruling gives boost to customary marriages

The Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that the Road Accident Fund treat women in customary marriages claiming support the same as those married under the Marriage Act (civil marriage). The director of the Women’s Legal Centre, Jennifer Williams, said on Wednesday the ruling was a victory for women married in terms of customary law.

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/ 20 November 2007

Rasool concerned at ‘overeager’ ANC members

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has blamed ”overeager” members of his own party for a report that President Thabo Mbeki has intervened to defuse a row over Rasool himself. Rasool, a member of the African National Congress (ANC), was accused in an official report last week of knowingly making incorrect statements to the legislature.

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/ 20 November 2007

Off-duty sergeant witnessed murder of detective

A police sergeant sitting in a car at the Woodstock police station saw two men in a red BMW opening fire on police Inspector Lourens le Roux, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. It is alleged that the two men were being investigated by Le Roux for the earlier murder of Godfrey Hendricks, in an argument over a baseball cap.

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/ 2 November 2007

Abalone court challenge postponed

A court challenge to Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s new abalone restrictions has been postponed for a month. Legal teams of the South African Abalone Industry Association and the state gathered at the Cape High Court on Friday morning for what was expected to be an application for an urgent interdict against the restrictions.

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/ 1 November 2007

Court urged to release Najwa Petersen on bail

The release on bail of Najwa Petersen, accused of the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep, was essential to save her young daughter from long-term emotional damage, Cape Town psychologist Rosa Bredenkamp told the Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday. Petersen has launched a second bail application after her first was rejected.

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/ 31 October 2007

Abalone court challenge to proceed

Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk still faces a court challenge from the abalone industry even though he backed down on Wednesday from a harvesting ban. The ban, prompted by rapidly declining stocks, was to have come into effect on Thursday. It would have halted all commercial harvesting of the threatened shellfish from the wild.