Latest news with #RolandSutherland
IOL News
5 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Judge highlights flaws in urgent application process against Reserve Bank
The High Court in Johannesburg said lawyers should afford their opponents time to respond when serving them with legal applications. Image: File The principle that the other side must also be heard is sacrosanct in the South African legal system, a judge said in criticising the conduct of an applicant who served the notice of an urgent application on the SA Reserve Bank after hours, on the eve of a public holiday. The urgent application only came to the attention of the Reserve Bank days later, after an order was already issued against it behind its back. Not knowing about the notice of the looming application, as it was served on a security guard on the premises, the Reserve Bank never showed up in court to oppose the application. It now turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, where it successfully obtained an order to overturn the order against it. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Judge Roland Sutherland remarked that the only times that a court will consider a matter behind a litigant's back are in exceptional circumstances. 'The phrase 'exceptional circumstances' has, regrettably, through overuse and the habits of hyperbole, lost much of its impact. To do that phrase justice, it must mean 'very rarely',' he said. Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, has allowed YWBN Mutual Bank to rebrand as eNL Mutual Bank. Image: IOL / Independent Newspapers Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, has allowed YWBN Mutual Bank to rebrand as eNL Mutual Bank. Image: IOL / Independent Newspapers YWBN Mutual Bank obtained an order on May 7 this year, in which the Reserve Bank was told to register a name change of the YWBN Mutual Bank to eNL Mutual Bank and do so within 48 hours of the service of the order. The Reserve Bank is the statutory authority to confer and approve the name of a bank. On Wednesday, April 30, the urgent name change application was issued. The sheriff served it at 16:43 to the security guard at the Reserve Bank's premises. The notice of motion called on the Reserve Bank to file an answer the next day - within 24 hours of service - and further stated that the case would be enrolled on May 6. Judge Sutherland noted that Wednesday, April 30, was the day before a public holiday, Workers' Day. Friday was therefore a trapped 'working' day between the public holiday and the weekend, rendering the period May 1 to May 4 a de facto long weekend for many people. 'Why was it necessary to serve outside of business hours? Was it not foreseeable that the documents would not reach the desk of a responsible official before Monday?' the judge questioned. He said the expectation that an answer would be forthcoming within 24 hours on a public holiday was 'absurd'. 'This was a service on an organ of state, a category of litigant whose officials show no evidence of being burdened by a Calvinistic work ethic,' the judge remarked. The application only came to the attention of a person who knew what to do on May 6. The security guard was clueless as to the urgency and apparently denied that the urgency of the matter had been explained to him by the sheriff. A telephone call at the time between the guard and an official of the Reserve Bank about the arrival of the documents was afflicted by connectivity problems and confusion as to what should have happened. 'What this saga of mishaps illustrates is that it is unprofessional to take a pedestrian approach to the service of urgent applications. It is not part of our legal procedure to move by stealth to court against an adversary,' the judge said in overturning the initial order against the Reserve Bank.
IOL News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
South Africa's municipal workers gain surrogacy leave rights
The SA Local Government Bargaining Council has amended its leave collective agreement, to pave the way for three months' paid surrogacy leave following an out-of-court settlement. Image: File Municipal workers in surrogacy arrangements are now entitled to three months' paid leave, like biological and adoptive mothers, following an agreement reached at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC). Parties to the SALGBC – the SA Local Government Association, SA Municipal Workers' Union, and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) – concluded the agreement providing for parents in surrogacy arrangements. In terms of the agreement, parents in surrogacy arrangements will be entitled to the same leave as biological and adoptive parents. According to the bargaining council, the agreement will be applicable retrospectively from October 2023, when the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland declared invalid some provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and corresponding provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Fund Act. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The judge found parts of both acts invalid because of inconsistency with the Constitution to the extent that the provisions unfairly discriminated between mothers and fathers, and between one set of parents and another based on whether their children were born of the mother, were conceived by surrogacy, or were adopted. Judge Sutherland also ruled that any employee who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate motherhood agreement is entitled to leave. Earlier this month, the SALGBC advised municipalities to take all necessary steps to give effect to the amendment and display the circular sent by the bargaining council general secretary, Bill Govender. The agreement on maternity, adoption, and surrogacy leave states that employees adopting a child under three months as well as those who are commissioning parents in surrogacy motherhood arrangements are entitled to three months paid maternity, adoption, or surrogacy leave with no limit to the number of confinements, adoptions, or surrogacy confinements. 'This leave provision shall also apply to an employee whose child is stillborn. Maternity, adoption, or surrogacy leave may commence four weeks before confinement,' reads the agreement. Imatu, which represents over 110,000 employees in the local government sector, described the fully paid surrogacy leave as a groundbreaking victory for women's rights. The union said this breakthrough recognised the evolving nature of parenthood and affirms the principle of equality in the workplace, regardless of the path to motherhood. Imatu initiated two separate urgent Labour Court applications involving its members who were commissioning mothers in surrogacy arrangements.
