THE SA ATTORNEYS’ JOURNAL - De Rebus

1 MAY 2016 THE SA ATTORNEYS JOURNAL Divorce Debt createD by the GePFLSSA hosts summit on briefing patterns Onwillekeurige verstryking van algemene prokurasieLaw Societies Presidents commit to a clean, ethical and responsive legal professionPress Ombud finds unfair reporting against attorneyProtection of Investments Act A balancing Act between policies and investmentsIf it is not original it is inadmissible the uncertainty of data messages in court proceedingsUnderstanding certain provisions of the Domestic Violence Act: A practitioner s perspectiveSAHRC celebrates 20 years of | Africa s largest law 14/12/2016 2:11:47 PMDE Rebus MAY 2016- 1 -MAY 2016 Issue 563 ISSN 0250-0329 CONTENTSR egular columns Editorial 3 Letters to the editor 4 News LSSA hosts summit on briefing patterns 6 Pro bono national stakeholder engagement 8 SOGIE rights in the spotlight 9 Press Ombud finds unfair reporting against attorney 11 SAHRC celebrates 20 years of existence 14 People and practices 16 LSSA News Notyesi and van Rensburg elected to lead Law Society of South Africa 18 Law Societies Presidents commit to a clean.

2 Ethical and responsive legal profession 19 LSSA expresses grave concern at views by President Zuma on the courts 19 LSSA applauds landmark judgment on the binding nature of the Public Protector s remedial action 20 LSSA condemns the conduct of the Bobroffs and urges them to respect the administration of justice 20 Examination dates for 2016 20 Practice note Understanding certain provisions of the Domestic Violence Act: A practitioner s perspective 22 The law reports 34 Case note NCA: The line in the sand can a cancelled agreement be revived? 41 Transport utility s duty to prevent harm to passenger 42 New legislation 45 Employment law update 47 Book announcement 48 Recent articles and research 49 Opinion The cedent, the cessionary and the moratorium quo vadis?

3 51 THE SA ATTORNEYS JOURNALTHE SA ATTORNEYS JOURNAL6789141519DE Rebus MAY 2016- 2 -If it is not original it is inadmissible the uncertainty of data messages in court proceedingsFEATURES32 Onwillekeurige verstryking van algemene prokurasie Divorce debt created by the Government Employees Pension Fund28 EDITOR: Mapula Thebe NDip Journ (DUT ) BTech (Journ) (TUT )EDITORIal sEcRETaRy: Shireen MahomedEDITORIal cOmmITTEE: Mohamed Randera (Chairperson), Giusi Harper , Peter Horn, Lutendo Sigogo EDITORIal OffIcE: 304 Brooks Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria. PO Box 36626, Menlo Park 0102. Docex 82, Pretoria. Tel (012) 366 8800 Fax (012) 362 0969. E-mail: Rebus ONlINE: : Acceptance of material for publication is not a guarantee that it will in fact be included in a particular issue since this depends on the space available.

4 Views and opinions of this JOURNAL are, unless otherwise stated, those of the authors. Editorial opinion or comment is, unless other-wise stated, that of the editor and publication thereof does not indicate the agreement of the Law Society, unless so stated. Con tributions may be edited for clarity, space and/or language. The appearance of an advertise ment in this publication does not neces sarily indicate approval by the Law Society for the product or service ad ver Rebus editorial staff use online products from: lexisNexis online product: MyLexisNexis. Go to: ; and Juta. Go to: PRINTER: Ince (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 38200, Booysens vERsION: The audio version of this JOURNAL is available free of charge to all blind and print-handicapped members of Tape Aids for the : main magazine: Ince Custom PublishingContact: Ian Wright Tel (011) 305 7340 Fax (011) 241 3040 Cell: 082 574 6979 E-mail: supplement: Contact: Isabel Janse van VurenTel (012) 366 8800 Fax (012) 362 0969PO Box 36626, Menlo Park 0102 E-mail: INquIRIEs: David MadonselaTel (012) 366 8800 E-mail: De Rebus , the South African Attorneys JOURNAL , is published monthly, 11 times a year, by the Law Society of South Africa, 304 Brooks Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria.

5 It circulates free of charge to all practising attorneys and candidate attorneys and is also available on general maIlINg lIsT INquIRIEs: Gail MasonTel (012) 441 4629 E-mail: inquiries and notifications by practising attorneys and candi-date attorneys should be addressed to the relevant law society which, in turn, will notify the Law Society of : General, and non-practising attorneys: R 920 p/aRetired attorneys and full-time law students: R 710 p/aCover price: R 95 eachSubscribers from African Postal Union countries (surface mail): R 1 465 (VAT excl)Overseas subscribers (surface mail): R 1 790 (VAT excl)NEw subscRIPTIONs aND ORDERs: David Madonsela Tel: (012) 366 8800 E-mail: Member ofThe Audit Bureau of Circulations of Southern Africa Copyright 2016: Law Society of South Africa 021-21-NPO Tel: (012) 366 8800 NEws EDITOR: Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele NDip Journ (DUT ) BTech (Journ)(TUT )PRODucTION EDITOR: Kathleen Kriel BTech (Journ) (TUT )sub-EDITOR: Kevin O Reilly MA (NMMU)sub-EDITOR:Isabel Janse van Vuren BIS Publishing (Hons) (UP)24 With the advent of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, and the subsequent re-peal of the Computer Evidence Act 57 of 1983, the answer to the admission of data messages whether as docu-ments real private or public is now simple.

6 David Jesse writes that the original unaltered version of the copy of the fax, e-mail or short message service (SMS) must be available for scrutiny by the court on the relevant instrument. In di artikel verwys die skrywer na die aanbevelings deur die Regshersieningskommissie, wat tot dusver nie uitgevo-er is nie. Die huidige algemeenaanvaarde beginsel is skyn-baar dat n algemene prokurasie onwillekeurig verval indien die volmaggewer n verandering van status ondergaan waar-deur sy of haar handelingsbevoegdheid aan bande gel word. Willie Herbst bespreek di standpunt en die uitspraak in die saak Tucker s Fresh Meat Supply (Pty) Ltd vs Echakowitz 1958 (1) SA 505 (AA).The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is Africa s largest pension fund with more than 1,2 million active members, some 360 000 pensioners and beneficiaries.

7 The GEPF is the only fund in South Africa which, when its members are divorcing, pay out the members former spouses divorce claims and creates divorce debts for its members. Members are required to pay back to the fund when they exit the fund, which debts attract interest. This article, written by Clement Marumoagae discusses the rationale behind the creation of divorce debts and evaluates whether such debts have the potential of prejudicing divorc-ing members of the of Investments Act A balancing Act between policies and investments26On 3 November 2015 the Protection of Investment Act 22 of 2015 was passed in Parliament despite staunch opposition. It is not difficult to understand why there has been opposition to the Act. In this article, Amy Farish gives a background to the Act and discusses the balance that South Africa has to strike between protecting its own policies and encouraging in-vestment at the same time.

8 DE Rebus MAY 2016- 3 -GUEST EDITORIALW ould you like to write for De Rebus ?De Rebus welcomes article contri-butions in all 11 official languages, especially from legal practitioners. Practitioners and others who wish to submit feature articles, practice notes, case notes, opinion pieces and letters can e-mail their contribu-tions to decision on whether to pub-lish a particular submission is that of the De Rebus Editorial Com-mittee, whose decision is final. In general, contributions should be useful or of interest to practising attorneys and must be original and not published elsewhere. For more information, see the Guidelines for articles in De Rebus on our website ( ). Please note that the word limit is now 2000 words. Upcoming deadlines for article submissions: 23 May and 20 June task team that dare not failFollow us online:@derebusjournalDe Rebus , The SA Attorneys task team that must carry forward the reso-lutions of the high-level summit on Briefing Pat-terns in the Legal Pro-fession has a critical and heavy burden on its figurative shoulders.

9 It will have to meet the aspirations of many black and female practi-tioners to rectify skewed briefing patterns. It will also have to prove many cynics wrong. The summit convened at the end of March by the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) and attended by numerous relevant stakehold-ers, from legal practitioners to rep-resentatives of the Justice Depart-ment and state-owned enterprises was regarded to be of such seri-ous significance, that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng felt it neces-sary to give the opening address even though he was delivering the historic Nkandla judgment that very morning in the Constitutional Court. Delegates at the summit collec-tively expressed their deepest con-cerns about briefing patterns in the public and private sectors. They were of the view that these endan-ger the constitutional democracy insofar as the perceived and real bias against black practitioners and women practitioners in these sec-tors was concerned.

10 (See p 6 of this issue for a report on the summit.)There was general agreement that this contravened the principles of non-racialism and non-sexism in the Constitution. It further has a negative impact on the progress of affected practitioners and their economic summit recognised that meaningful action must be taken by all stakeholders and that this process must be subjected to strict is expected to em-brace decisive action and must not be seen to promote skewed briefing task team to be convened by the LSSA will include repre-sentatives of legal practitioners, the state through the Department of Justice and Constitutional De-velopment, as well as of business through the Black Business Council and Business Unity South task team, which is to give due consideration to all views raised at the summit, is tasked with developing a uniform protocol on the procurement of legal services; setting targets for entities doing state work.