Admission of guilt fine : A legal shortcut with delayed shock?

A popular perception shared by peace officers and the public alike is that the payment of an admission of guilt fine finalises the judicial process and no criminal record will result. However, paying an admission of guilt fine in terms of section 56 of the Criminal Procedure Act means that the person is deemed to have been convicted and sentenced in a court of law. People who pay admission of guilt fines later discover with shock that they in fact have a criminal record, with severe consequences. Often costly High Court applications will have to be instituted to set aside the conviction and sentence. Peace officers have a duty to inform a person of the consequences of paying an admission of guilt fine, but often do not do so and even abuse the admission of guilt system to finalise matters speedily. This article examines the consequences for a person who pays an admission of guilt fine. It further investigates whether there is a duty on Legal Aid South Africa to provide legal assistance in these matters and whether an administrative infringement process should be investigated

Corruption, state capture and the betrayal of South Africa’s vulnerable

The term state capture was first defined in a World Bank report on corruption in eastern Europe and central Asia in 2003. Hellman, Jones and Kaufmann (2000) point out in the report that some firms in transition economies were able to shape the rules of the game to their own advantage at a considerable social cost by creating a “capture economy.

Corruption, state capture and the betrayal of South Africa’s vulnerable

The term state capture was first defined in a World Bank report on corruption in eastern Europe and central Asia in 2003. Hellman, Jones and Kaufmann (2000) point out in the report that some firms in transition economies were able to shape the rules of the game to their own advantage at a considerable social cost by creating a “capture economy.

Enhancing protection of internally displaced persons through domestic law and policy

With the global crisis and conflicts, Africa as a continent has the largest number of IDPs in the world. Unfortunately, peoples have lost their life, exposed to different abuses; abandon their homes, property and their family in Nigeria due to Boko Haram insurgency, political instability, civil conflict, natural or economic predicaments and more also developmental projects. The problem of IDPs includes lack of basic amenities such access to portable water, good health care services, food, and shelter. As displaced persons did not cross an internationally recognised border, they are termed ‘’internally displaced persons’’ (IDPs) not refugees. The paper will examine the legal framework on the rights of IDPs and the Kampala Convention 2009 of the African Union. The paper analyses the legal regime for the Protection and Assistance of the IDPs rights in regional conflicts. This paper examines the AU Kampala Convention 2009 and how the rights of the IDPs have been violated by the agents of states. The paper concludes with a recommendation that Legislation should be domesticated in the National laws and Constitution of Member States who have signed and ratified the AU Convention 2009. Despite the legal constraint of customary international law, international law can be interpreted to include the humanitarian services and aids be given to IDPs as a protection through the international human rights laws(IHRL) and international humanitarian laws(IHL) ratified by the Member States of the regional institution. The State must hold members of the armed groups criminally responsible for human rights abuses and violations of IHL.Keywords: IDPs, Kampala Convention, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, Legislation and Polic

ZigBee Healthcare Monitoring System for Ambient Assisted Living Environments

Healthcare Monitoring Systems (HMSs) are promising to monitor patients in hospitals and elderly people living in Ambient Assisted Living environments using Wireless Sensor Networks. HMSs assist in monitoring chronic diseases such as Heart Attacks, High Blood Pressure and other cardiovascular diseases. Wearable and implanted devices are types of Body sensors that collect human health related data. Collected data is sent over Personal Area Networks (PANs). However, PANs are facing the challenge of increasing network traffic due to the increased number of IP-enabled devices connected in Healthcare Monitoring Systems to assist patients. ZigBee technology is an IEEE 802.15.4 standard designed to address network traffic issues in PANs. To route traffic, ZigBee network use ZigBee Tree Routing (ZTR) protocol. ZTR however suffers a challenge of network latency caused by end to end delay during packet forwarding. This paper is proposing a New Tree Routing Protocol (NTRP) for Healthcare Monitoring Systems to collect Heart Rate signals. NTRP uses Kruskal’s minimum spanning tree to find shortest routes on a ZigBee network which improves ZTR. Neighbor tables are implemented in NTRP instead of parent–child mechanism implemented in ZTR. To reduce end to end delay, NTRP groups’ nodes into clusters and the cluster heads use neighbor tables to forward heart rate data to the destination node. NS-2 simulation tool is used to evaluate NTRP performance

Court Supervised Institutional Transformation in South Africa

The traditional adversarial model of litigation in South Africa operates on the basis that two or more parties approach the court, each with its own desired outcome. The court is then obliged to decide in favour of one of the parties. A different model of litigation is emerging in South African law. This model involves actions against public institutions that are failing to comply with their constitutional mandate. In this type of litigation there is seldom a dispute regarding the eventual outcome that is desired. Both the applicant and the state, in its capacity of the respondent, have a broad consensus about the manner in which the institution should operate or be transformed. There is accordingly agreement regarding the eventual outcome and the shortcomings that should be addressed. The primary issue relates to the details of the implementation of the transformation of the institution in question, in order that the constitutional mandate of the institution in question will be met. An example of this form of litigation can be seen in litigation concerning the conditions in which prisoners are detained in South African prisons. The constitutional mandate for the imprisonment of offenders is contained in the Correctional Services Act. Ongoing human rights violations often take place in prisons. These include staff shortages, shortages of medical staff and facilities, prison overcrowding, inadequate staff development, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, infrastructure defects and maintenance problems, gangsterism, requests for prisoner transfers and problems associated therewith, the ineffectiveness of parole boards, staff development needs that are not addressed, an excessive focus on security, lack of rehabilitation and vocational training programmes and assaults of prisoners. The courts have on occasion issued a structured interdict as an appropriate remedy. However, problems arise when violations are widespread and no single order can cause the problems to be properly addressed or where the executive fails to implement or even ignores court orders. Thus, the wrong which is complained of is not a wrong done to a particular person, but the constitutional wrong is the manner in which the institution executes its mandate vis-a-vis the vulnerable beneficiaries of the public service in question. The transformation thereof is designed to bring the institution within its constitutional duties and bounds. There is usually no dispute about the failures of the organisation and court orders are often taken by consent. The question which arises is how it can be ensured that a public institution such as a school, welfare department, hospital for the mentally disabled, home for the elderly or prison, which is designed to serve or accommodate the vulnerable may be brought into conformity with its constitutional mandate where there are continual and persistent failures to do so. Even where court orders are obtained, there are often significant problems with the implementation thereof. In the case of prisons, a possible solution, which has been employed in the United States of America and which may be adapted for use in the South African context, is that of a post-trial special master or court appointed supervisor, who supervises the transformation of the public institution until such time as the non-compliance has been appropriately resolved. In this article the role and functions of the American special master will be set out. The feasibility of importing such an office into the South African context will be evaluated.   &nbsp

FROM BANTU DIVORCE COURTS TO DIVORCE COURTS: A SUCCESSFUL EXERCISE IN LEGAL TRANSFORMATION

In order to establish Family Courts in South Africa, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development established a Family Court Task Team in 1997. During September 1998 a Family Court Pilot Project was launched by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to serve as test sites for possible nation-wide implementation. This project flowed from the “Justice Vision2000” national strategy. The aim of the project was to make justice accessible to families in urban, rural and even isolated communities, by providing co-ordinated and integrated family services to all parties involved in family law disputes under one roof. The establishment of Family Courts was motivated by the following aims: to afford wide and specialized protection and help to the family as a fundamental unit in society, to bring about access to justice for all in family disputes, and to improve the quality andeffectiveness of service delivery in this area (Chaskalson Family Courts 4). With the formation of the Family Court Pilot Project, the vision of the project was defined as to establish a court structure which has its own identity, is accessible to the community, sensitive to the needs of the community, operating according to simple procedures, offering counselling and mediation support services and providing a quality service in a pleasant and user-friendly environment. With its formation, it was envisaged that each Family Court Centre will have two components, the support service and the litigation component. The family support service provides support to the family and encompasses alternative ways to resolve disputes without parties appearing in court, such as counseling and family group conferencing. The litigation component offers services ranging from maintenance, domestic violence, Children’s Court, deceased estates, Family Advocate services, divorces and a help desk. The Divorce Courts form an integral and important part of the FamilyCourt Pilot Project. These courts were originally instituted in 1929 to entertain divorce actions between black people. These so-called Black Divorce Courts were established under section 10 of the Black Administration Act (38 of 1927) and the Black Administration Amendment Act (9 of 1929)

A Critical Analysis of South African Anti-Money Laundering Legislation with regard to Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies are decentralised virtual currencies, using blockchain technology to process peer-to-peer electronic payments. In 2009, the first successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was established. This article discusses concepts of cryptocurrency, its relevance in the financial sector, its associated risks and establishes whether regulatory interference is necessary in order to combat money laundering using cryptocurrency. Currently, cryptocurrencies remain unregulated in South Africa. The article concludes that regulatory intervention is necessary and that cryptocurrencies should be integrated into relevant existing legislation