Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) v South Africa (Minister of Health): reflections on the right to health care in Canada

In this article, Showkat Yazdanian examines the potential impact of the South African Constitutional court's decision in TAC v Minister of Health on the right to health care in Canada. Showkat first focuses on the potential utility of international treaties and precedents as a means to uphold the right to preventative health care in Canada. She then examines the Canadian Constitution's bearing on a right to health care, including an analysis of the current division of federal and provincial health powers.     

South Africa: defiance campaign continues

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has continued its "defiance campaign against patent abuse and AIDS profiteering." In partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and with the support of Oxfam and the Council of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), on 28 January 2002 three TAC members returned to South Africa from Brazil carrying generic versions of the antiretroviral drugs zidovudine (AZT), lamivudine (3TC), and nevirapine (NVP). Some of the imported capsules contain a combination of AZT and 3TC.     

南非:《劳动法》照不进的地心深处

过去,解雇一位雇员很容易。而现在,雇主必须先给雇员一次当面警告,然后是两次书面警告,随之而来的是雇员在听证会上对自己的行为做辩护,全部通过后,雇员才能被解雇。此后,雇员仍然可以将雇主诉上劳动法庭,并为被解雇寻求补偿。(图/东方IC)     

South Africa: airline found guilty of employment discrimination

On 28 September 2000, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that South African Airways (SAA) violated the constitutional rights of Jacques Hoffmann in September 1996 by refusing to employ him as a cabin attendant on the ground that he is HIV-positive.     

Muti murders form South Africa: a case report

In Southern Africa, human body parts are sometimes used for medicinal (muti) purposes. The human body is seen as being very powerful. Although ritual killing for this purpose is not common, some cases have been reported. This paper reports on an unusual muti murder, where the remains of two individuals were found in a medicine man's house. Three pots were found, two of which were constructed around human skulls. Various objects, such as coins, bullets, stones, human and animal bones were found inside the pots. They were decorated with beadwork, whistles, skin bangles, etc. Osteological analysis revealed that the human remains probably belonged to a young, white adult male individual, and a juvenile individual of Negroid descent. All associated objects probably have ritual significance, and some of these are discussed.     

南非律师制度初探

南非律师制度经历了从种族歧视到黑人与白人律师平等发展的变迁。由于先后受到荷兰与英国的殖民统治,南非律师制度具有法系混合特征。在迈向法制现代化的进程中,律师制度的人权保障功能日益受到重视,尤其是法律援助制度建设已引起世界关注。     

A fresh start I: Education rights in South Africa

In this first part of a two-part article education rights as protected by the South African Constitution are analysed. As background, the education rights protected by section 32 of the interim Constitution and the case law that arose from that provision are discussed. Section 29 of the 1996 Constitution is then discussed with reference to the right to basic and further education, the right to education in the language of one's choice, and the right to private education. Mention is also made of the way in which religious observances maybe conducted in schools. This first part of the article concludes with the observation that the education rights in the Constitution form the basis and the spearhead of the fresh start South Africa has made in education. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Finance-investment-growth nexus in South Africa: an ARDL-bounds testing procedure

In this paper we examine the dynamic causal relationship between financial development, investment and economic growth in South Africa—using the newly developed ARDL-Bounds testing procedure. Unlike the majority of the previous studies, we incorporate investment in the bivariate model between financial development and economic growth—thereby creating a simple trivariate causality model. In addition, we use three proxies of financial development, namely M2/GDP, the ratio of private sector credit to GDP and the ratio of liquid liabilities to GDP in order to test the robustness of the results. Our results show that, on the whole, economic growth has a formidable influence on the financial sector development. The study also finds that there is a distinct unidirectional causal flow from economic growth to investment. Moreover, the study also finds that investment, which results from growth, Granger-causes financial development. The study, therefore, recommends that South Africa should intensify its pro-growth policies in order to bolster investment and financial development.     

Law in and Legitimacy South Africa

Israel has since 1967 administered the West Bank and Gaza Strip through highly legalistic and strongly repressive military governments. Has advocacy in Israeli courts on behalf of Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Ship has kgitimaed, and thus helped to perpetuate, ongoing Israeli military occupation of those regions? By examining legitimation in lawyering under lsraeli occupation, insight can be gained into the factors and their relative weights that lawyers facing harsh or repressive regimes must consider in balancing the costs and benefits of litigation to serve a social or political opposition movement. The author concludes that the benefits outweigh the legitimating effects of lawyers’work and that, on balance, Palestinians’election to seek representation in Israeli courts, and lawyers’choice to assist them, has been justified.     

DNA evidence in South Africa: Lessons learned to date

A trend was noted over the past 15 years in the South African courts. This trend has a multi-factorial origin and highlights the problems faced in the use of forensic science evidence in court. Although there have been improvements on how DNA evidence is gathered and presented in court, due to the fact that certain cases have been contested at the DNA evidence level, multiple issues remain that have not yet been addressed when DNA evidence is submitted to court. These issues include: accreditation, regulation of the forensic science profession, continued education, training of court officials, quality assurance, biased testimony, lack of transparency with regard to processes and procedures followed in the forensic community, incorrect interpretation of DNA evidence, lack of scientific knowledge (including the scientific method) by DNA experts, awareness by the legal profession and an over emphasis on the prosecuting perspective. These same aspects continue to plague current cases. Despite the above, the window of opportunity to address the above has not yet passed. However, it will take continuous and concerted efforts from the scientific and legal professions to bring about the appropriate change to facilitate justice for all in South Africa.     

Forensic science in South Africa: Status of the profession

The forensic science profession in South Africa is currently unregulated. There is also no national body that allows for the continued development or professional interaction of forensic scientists. The above has brought about a dire need to regulate the profession, in order to achieve the specific goals listed. To attain these objectives it is envisaged that the founding of a Forensic Science Academy in South Africa is of critical importance. The creation of a Forensic Science Academy was explored as the authors believe that such an Academy will provide structure to the profession of forensic science in South Africa – as well as paving the way towards regulation of the profession.     

South Africa: damages awarded to woman infected by husband

In mid-2001, the High Court of South Africa issued its judgment in Patricio v Patricio, a civil case in which a woman sued her HIV-positive husband for infecting her with HIV.     

Adapting to Changing Legal Frameworks: Mozambican Refugees in South Africa

This paper argues that legal frameworks to manage immigrationand refugee rights need to be understood from below, namely,how they are interpreted and used locally by the immigrantsaffected and by the host communities, in their specific historicalcontext. Using the case of Mozambican refugees in South Africa(1985–2006), the paper outlines why many of the policiestargeted at or affecting this group of immigrants have had counterproductiveeffects (from the perspective of policy makers) because of thedisjuncture between the goals and assumptions of the legal frameworkand the reality experienced and desired by the refugees. Thesituation of Mozambican refugees in South Africa over the pasttwenty years has been shaped by a radically changing legal context.These changes are charted and matched with how Mozambican refugees,especially those settled in the rural border areas, have adaptedto, made use of and subverted the various legal constraintsand opportunities provided by the South African state and itslocal representatives.