Author: Kennedy Mudzuli

EMPLOYERS cannot prescribe how often and when a female emoloyee should get pregnant. However, in the case of Nikita Twitchen from the UK, the opposite happened. Twitchen has been granted about R630 000 payout after she was fired her for falling pregnant again while on maternity leave. The 27-year-old woman was preparing to return to her job after having a baby when she discovered that she was pregnant again. Her manager at First Grade Projects dismissed her from work before she returned. He was unhappy that she had to go on another 36-week maternity leave. However, Twitchen took the matter…

Occupants of a family home are protected from a possible eviction, the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg has ruled. The matter at hand involved the Dhlamini property in Soweto, which the court has now recognised as a family home, thus preventing any possible eviction. Lawyers for Human Rights represented the Dhlamini family in court. After a protracted battle, the court granted a landmark order recognising its client’s property as a family home. This decision provides critical protection to the Dhlamini family, preventing their eviction and affirming their right to remain on a property they have considered home for generations, Louise du…

The Limpopo High Court, sitting in Polokwane, also overturned the late soldier’s civil marriage to his second South African wife in the application. The court had been asked to decide whether a then 17-year-old who married the soldier in 1970 in terms of customary law in Zimbabwe is deemed to be legally married to him in South Africa. The husband moved to South Africa in the 1980s and left his wife behind in Zimbabwe. He married another woman here, in terms of civil law. The first wife, who is now in her 70s, asked the court to declare her the…