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Medico-Legal
Cape pharmaceutical firm fined for over-charging for face masks
In further clamping down on excessive personal protective equipment supply-prices, the Competition Tribunal has confirmed an order that a Paarl-based pharmaceutical products supplier pay...
KZN High Court rejects 'payment in kind' for medical negligence
The High Court (Durban) has rejected a KZN Health bid to substitute future state healthcare services to a victim of hospital negligence, instead of...
Competition Commission probes price of remdesivir in SA
The SA Competition Commission is investigating the price of US pharmaceutical manufacturer Gilead Sciences’ coronavirus treatment remdesivir, and prices charged by generic firms to which...
First actions against Austrian resort at centre of EU pandemic
Local authorities in Austria are set to face the first legal challenges from people who claim they caught the coronavirus at a popular ski...
Health laboratory services extension gazetted
Department of Health forensic chemistry laboratory services now form part of broader national health laboratory services governed in terms of the 2000 National Health...
Newborn baby to be exhumed for DNA testing over 'mistaken identity'
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has intervened in a case of possible mistaken identity when a newborn boy was buried after the hospital had...
Dlamini-Zuma promises public participation ahead of any tobacco ban
Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will follow a “public participation process” should there be a renewed ban on the sale of...
Reputational harm causes Dis-Chem to abandon appeal
Dis-Chem has withdrawn its appeal at the Competition Appeal Court after being found guilty of excessive mask pricing. Business Day reports the Competition Commission...
No guarantee that tobacco ban won't be reinstated — State Attorney
The government cannot give an undertaking that the tobacco ban will not be reinstated in the future. In a letter written to the Fair...
Tiger Brands facing another listeriosis legal challenge
Tiger Brands is facing another legal challenge in the listeriosis class action lawsuit as its opponents haul the consumer goods company to court to...
Victory for pregnant Ugandan women after ConCourt rethink
Uganda’s Constitutional Court has delivered a major victory for the health of pregnant women in that country, writes Carmel Rickard in her Matter of...
Depression not an excuse for employee misconduct – Labour Appeal Court
The Labour Appeal Court has overruled a judgment that found Legal Aid SA had unfairly discriminated against an employee with depression, writes MedicalBrief. The Labour...
New death certificate requirement of test for coronavirus
A Sunday Times report says the funeral industry is in turmoil over a Health Department instruction that anyone who dies of natural causes outside...
'Unhinged' Cannabis Bill likely to be challenged in courts
A Mail & Guardian report quotes a legal expert on cannabis matters saying that the"completely arbitrary" possession limits in the new Cannabis for Private Purposes...
R65m in unpaid Life Esidimeni compensation
The legal firm that acts on behalf of 101 families of the victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy have sent a letter of demand...
WTO's plain packaging finding a 'green light' for SA's tobacco Bill
The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Appellate body recently confirmed that Australia’s tobacco plain-packaging measures are in compliance with trade rules and obligations; laying to...
Fita goes ahead with tobacco appeal despite unbanning
The tobacco wars rumble as ban is lifted, say reports.
British American Tobacco SA (Batsa) has urged government to ratify the World Health Organisation's Illicit...
Indefinite postponement sought in wine case
Now that the government has lifted the ban on alcohol sales, the Southern African Agri Initiative's (Saai) intends to ask the Gauteng High Court...
Dlamini-Zuma: Studies show tobacco linked to more severe COVID-19 infections
Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is fighting tobacco ban objections on all fronts.
The mix of COVID-19 and diseases like HIV...
R34m negligence claim adds to Eastern Cape Health's woes
A R34.1m damages claim lodged in the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) has added to the Health Department’s legal woes as the province continues...
Sanofi charged with manslaughter over French infant deaths
Multi-national pharmaceutical company Sanofi has been charged with manslaughter in France due to congenital disorders linked to its drug for epilepsy. According to a...
NDZ is 'pushing agenda against alcohol usage’ — wine farmers
After receiving the record from the government on which it based its decision to ban alcohol sales during lockdown, wine farmers say most material...
Dagga Bill regulating private use approved by Cabinet
Cabinet has approved the Bill regulating the private use of cannabis and setting the limit of the quantity that may be possessed by an...
US ruling orders pharmas to provide missing clinical trial data
Hundreds of drug companies, medical device manufacturers, and universities owe the public a decade’s worth of missing data from clinical trials, STAT News reports.
New...
National Public Health Institute Amendment Act gazetted
The 2020 National Public Health Institute of SA Act was gazetted on 7 August, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. The Act (written...
Competition Commission's new approach to price gouging hits small firms hard
South Africa's competition authorities have acted with speed in an attempt to curb excessive pricing and its hitting small that firms would not normally meet...
SCA on negligence appeal: No such thing as diagnostic infallibility
Medical science has not advanced to the stage of diagnostic infallibility and sympathy is not grounds for imposing legal liability, wrote Judge Malcolm Wallis...
Gauteng judgment may transform treatment of children who use drugs
A law that criminalises children who possess or use cannabis has been declared unconstitutional by Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Ingrid Opperman, who said...
Criminal proceedings over negligence will have dire consequences
Recent legal actions against practising medical professionals may deter new entrants and cause experienced practitioners to retire, which has dire consequences for effective healthcare...
Questions over Eastern Cape strategy on R29bn in negligence claims
The Eastern Cape Health Department has released a detailed list of “interventions” to deal with its burgeoning R29bn slate of medical negligence claims against...
UK braces for flood of compensation claims over sidelining of cancer patients
Clinical negligence lawyers in the UK expect a flood of claims in the coming months over fears that cancer diagnosis and treatment have been...
Tobacco giant challenges government's Covid-19 strategy
South Africa’s largest cigarette manufacturer, British American Tobacco (Batsa), says the state's justification for banning the sale of tobacco products during lockdown is an...
Fita applies for direct leave to appeal cigarette ban
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) registrar has granted an application for dates in the filing of an application for leave to appeal brought...
Dlamini-Zuma promises regular re-evaluation of 'empirical evidence' for alcohol ban
Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in papers before the High Court that the government will re-evaluate the alcohol ban regularly,...
US workers unleash a wave of COVID-19 negligence lawsuits
Major employers across the US are facing a wave of lawsuits filed by workers claiming they contracted the novel coronavirus as a result of...
Esidimeni families threaten action over non-payment
The Gauteng government is gearing for another legal battle over the Life Esidimeni scandal that left 144 psychiatric patients dead – this time over...
Military doctors refuse deployment by WhatsApp to Eastern Cape
Twelve military doctors were charged after failing to go to the Eastern Cape to help with the COVID-19 effort there, but they argue their...
Matriculant left quadriplegic after rugby injury wins claim 14 years later
The Gauteng High Court has ruled that a then 18-year-old matriculant left a paraplegic after he was carried off the rugby field without a...
Lobby group turns to SCA over tobacco ban
The Fair Trade and Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) is fighting for its cigarette sales ban challenge to be urgently heard by the Supreme Court...
Woman who posed for 2 years as medical intern sent for mental evaluation
A 23-year-old KwaZulu-Natal woman, Nokwanda Ndlovu, has been sent to Fort Napier Hospital for mental evaluation by Nkandla Regional Court Magistrate Morne Swanepoel. Ndlovu,...