The South African Truth Commission: the politics of reconciliation by DOROTHY SHEA. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000. Pp. xiii+107. US$8.95/£6.50 (pbk).

Abstract Section 162 of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 empowers courts to declare directors delinquent and hence to disqualify them from office. This article compares the judicial disqualification of directors under this section with the equivalent provisions in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America, which have all influenced the South African act. The article compares the classes of persons who have locus standi to apply to court to disqualify a director from holding office, as well as the grounds for the judicial disqualification of a director, the duration of the disqualification, the application of a prescription period and the discretion conferred on courts to disqualify directors from office. It contends that, in empowering courts to disqualify directors from holding office, section 162 of the South African Companies Act goes too far in certain respects.

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The United States Supreme Court’s case selection: A primer for the South African Constitutional Court in hearing matters of general public importance

Journal of Comparative Law in Africa ◽

10.47348/jcla/v8/i2a6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 149-174

Author(s):

Paul Nkoane

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Supreme Court ◽

South African ◽

General Public ◽

The United States ◽

Constitutional Court ◽

United States Supreme ◽

The South ◽

Case Selection ◽

The Supreme Court

The jurisdiction of the South African Constitutional Court has been extended for the court to administer ‘matters of general public importance’ in addition to administering constitutional matters. There is no South African court that accepted appeals on the grounds that the matter raised an arguable point of law of general public importance. This novelty in the South African law requires an inspection of other jurisdictions to determine which matters the Constitutional Court should accept for appeals. In this respect, the article inspects the Supreme Court of the United States case docket to determine the kinds of cases the court accepts for appeals.

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Haunted Legacies

Black Opera ◽

10.5622/illinois/9780252041921.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 55-84

Author(s):

Naomi André

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

South African ◽

Song Cycle ◽

The United States ◽

Interracial Relationships ◽

The South ◽

Racial Categories ◽

William Bolcom

This chapter examines the song cycle (also thought of as a monodrama or solo opera) by composer William Bolcom and playwright/librettist Sandra Seaton, From the Diary of Sally Hemings. The chapter includes a discussion of the DNA, kinship, and social controversies over the interracial pairing of Jefferson, a founder of the United States as a nation, and Hemings, his slave and consort. Through an analysis of the compositional genesis of the work, the text, and the music, this chapter also explores what is at stake for thinking about the breakdown of black-white racial categories. Extended references are made to Saartijie Baartman (the South African “Hottentot Venus”) and Edward Ball, the descendent of the Ball plantation who looked up interracial relationships with slaves in his family.

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The South African Truth Commission

10.1057/9780333983140 ◽

2000 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Kenneth Christie

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Truth Commission ◽

The South

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The Role of the Legal Profession in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights ◽

10.1177/016934410202000302 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 273-298

Author(s):

Heidy Rombouts ◽

Stephan Parmentier

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Legal Profession ◽

Transition To Democracy ◽

Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽

Truth Commission ◽

The South ◽

Reconciliation Commission ◽

Truth And Reconciliation ◽

The One ◽

The Impact

In situations of a transition to democracy, the legal profession tends to have a strong impact. While this is quite clear in the case when criminal prosecutions are initiated against perpetrators of gross human rights violations, and when amnesty provisions are enacted for some violations, it is far less obvious in cases when a truth commission is set up. The current article looks into the role that the legal profession, i.e. the judiciary, the bar and the non-governmental organisations, has played in the notorious case of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It draws on the systems analysis of political life by David Easton, which identifies how demands (input) that rise in society, are processed (conversion) and produce results (output), which provide new inputs to the political system. This ‘flow model’ is applied to two separate processes during the life of the TRC: the Special Legal Hearing of October 1997, and the legal challenges put to the Commission in Court in 1996. Our analysis reveals a number of interesting conclusions. One is that the organised profession approached the Special Legal Hearing from a very legalistic point of view, despite the non-judicial character of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at large. This stands in contrast with the position of the Constitutional Court, which recognised the limits of the traditional judicial system and came out in support of the TRC. Another conclusion is that, although the participation of the judges and the magistrates in the Special Legal Hearing was limited to written submissions, their influence proved very large, as they threatened the TRC with a constitutional crisis. Finally, throughout the two processes under review, breaches became visible within the legal profession, between the ‘progressive’ non-governmental organisations and the ‘conservative’ organised profession on the one hand, and between the organised profession on the one hand and the judges on the other hand. In sum, it can convincingly be concluded that the impact of the legal profession remains quite important when a truth commission is opted for in a context of transition to democracy.

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Comparing Electoral Integrity within and across States

Why American Elections Are Flawed (And How to Fix Them) ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501713408.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Pippa Norris

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

State Level ◽

The United States ◽

Washington Dc ◽

The South ◽

Us States ◽

The World ◽

American Elections ◽

Electoral Performance ◽

Cross National

This chapter compares cross-national and state-level evidence from expert and mass surveys to diagnose problems in American elections. When evaluating the integrity of elections, experts rated America exceptionally poorly. Compared with all 153 countries in the survey, based on the average evaluations of both the 2012 and 2014 US elections, America scored 62 out of the 100-point PEI Index. Compared with the rest of the world, the United States ranks 52nd worldwide. Experts also evaluated the 2016 elections across all fifty US states and Washington, DC. The results show that the south remains the region of America which experts assess as having the weakest electoral performance. Democratic-controlled states usually had significantly greater electoral integrity than Republican-controlled states, across all stages except one (the declaration of the results, probably reflecting protests in several major cities following the unexpected Trump victory).

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Vrouwees: perspektiewe in die meer onlangse Afrikaanse poësie en prosa

Literator ◽

10.4102/lit.v9i3.853 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 29-43

Author(s):

R. Marais

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Women Writers ◽

South African ◽

United States Of America ◽

The United States ◽

The South ◽

The Usa ◽

Feminist Movements ◽

Creative Writings

This article investigates the views on woman and womanhood that are expressed in the poetry and prose of several contemporary women writers in Afrikaans. The study is conducted against the background of certain tendencies in feminist movements in Europe, Britain and the United States of America as well as views pronounced in the writings (both literary and feminist) of a number of feminist writers in Europe, Britain and the USA. For the purposes of this investigation a short exposition is given of what feminism entails, as well as of a number of the different views and approaches which it accommodates. Subsequently different views on womanhood as expressed in the creative writings of a number of women writers who have written extensively on this topic are discussed at the hand of their poetry and prose. Specific attention is paid to the South African woman’s views on men, marriage, her own sexuality and motherhood as revealed in the writings of these women.

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