Articles

What do you think the first thing I ask a client is when they are consulting our firm in a divorce case? “How much money do you have?”; “Why do you want to divorce your spouse?”; “Were you unfaithful?   Click here to download the full article  

It has been fourteen years since Judge Albie Sash’s ground-breaking judgment in the Constitutional Court granting LGBTI people the right to marry, and 13 years  since the actual law came into being. The dust has settled, the initial shock of the majority of straights subsided and the euphoria of gays made way for the usual […]

he legal position of a domestic partnership /permanent life partnership in South Africa Many South Africans find themselves in a situation where they have been in a committed relationship with their respective partner, whereby they have contributed towards household and other areas of the relationship, and yet on the death of their partner they are […]

Introduction   Many of us dream to be homeowners one day but it is known that purchasing fixed property is not an easy endeavor, it can be rather cumbersome. The process its self takes at least 3 months, if there are no complications and all the suspensive conditions are met.   Many people work for […]

Raising a special levy Both the Sectional Titles Act and the prescribed rules leave the decision to raise a special levy to the sole discretion of the trustees. The Act says a special contribution, “becomes due on the passing of a resolution in this regard by the trustees” and the rule says “The trustees may […]

1. A defaulting owner is a common headache for a body corporate or home owners association, we at Coenraad Kukkuk Attorneys make it our business to assist in the resolution of such disputes on behalf of our clients. In so doing we have come across some frequently asked questions surrounding the legal fees, which we […]

Earlier this month the North Gauteng High Court made a landmark ruling in favour of non-profit organisation EarthLife Africa (ELA). This is South Africa’s first climate change lawsuit.1 The chief director of the Department of Environmental Affairs granted Thambametsi, a proposed 1200MW coal-fired power station in Limpopo, environmental approval. ELA then sought to appeal the […]

Background In approaching the legal question of how one contests the validity of a will it is important to note that under South African law, no person has an inherent right to inherit (which should not be confused with the rules of the laws of succession in South Africa). South African law rather focuses on […]

Gay people all over the world have often been subjected to the wrath of over-zealous and mostly fundamentalist religious groups. It is repeatedly said that homosexuality is “wrong” or even “unlawful” because the Bible or the Qu’ran or Torah “says so”. What is the actual standing in law in South Africa of these books or […]