Legal news and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar
How to recognise police impersonation scams and what to do about them Dressing up as a police officer has long been an act for male strippers. It’s a bit of fun and no one would mistake them for real law enforcement officers. But impersonating a police officer for financial gain is a serious issue. Extortion […]
Your conviction is not wiped clean yet! What happens to convictions for possession of cannabis, now that the law has changed? Are criminal convictions automatically expunged, because the offence is no longer illegal? Or is a conviction forever based on the law in force at the time the offence was committed? We explain. Decriminalisation for […]
Don’t drink and drive! It’s December. Thank goodness for that. Everyone is tired. This year, unlike the past two years, we are free from Covid-19-related restrictions such as lockdowns, beach closures, curfews, and alcohol bans. Life has more or less returned to normal. Let’s not allow that to mean a return to high rates of […]
What you need to know about cyber extortion Have you received emails with subject lines such as “Please can we work on this project?” or “Your abandoned fund at King Shaka Airport, Durban”? Hopefully you’ve got a spam folder set up and your email server automatically redirects these fraudulent emails. Unless you check your spam […]
Court rules grow clubs do not constitute “private use” The Haze Club is – or was – a cooperative-type arrangement whereby individuals brought their own seeds to the club to be cultivated by horticulturists, in return for the harvested and dried plant for their private use when ready. Grow clubs like this, claims owner Neil […]
What it means for your privacy Cybercrime is on the increase in every aspect of life. Hardly a day goes by without a news item about the latest ransomware attack. But there is one type of cybercrime that is decidedly egregious. Cyber abuse, particularly when it involves bullying, disclosure of intimate images, or threats of […]
What does the new Cybercrimes Act 2020 cover? We wrote recently about the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). The need for such privacy legislation came about because of the explosion in electronic storage of personal information over the past two decades. Historically, personal information was held mostly by financial services companies, in paper records. […]
POPIA – why you should care The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) was enacted on 1 July 2020, but only became fully enforceable on 1 July 2021. Businesses enjoyed a 12-month grace period to comply with all the requirements. Since 1 July 2021 significant penalties for non-compliance have been in place. However, we are […]
How to deal with false or libellous online business reviews For years, large corporates treated their customers like playthings. Consumers have suffered exorbitant bank charges, uncompetitive cell phone rates, and exploitation in all manner of goods and services because, unless they banded together and became a collective voice, they were powerless against the might of […]
We came across an interesting case recently where the punishment most definitely did not fit the crime. A petty criminal received an unduly harsh sentence. Furthermore, there were minor children involved who might have been left without their caregiver if the sentence had been carried out. An accused appeared before a magistrates court for the […]
Why bail is not always granted In November 2018, Jason Rohde was convicted of killing his wife Susan and defeating or obstructing the course of justice by covering up her murder to make it look like a suicide. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Rohde has now asked the courts to grant bail so […]
Reconciliation vs. retribution Globally, conventional criminal justice systems, based on punishing people for their crimes through incarceration and instilling fear of imprisonment as a deterrent, seem to have limited success. Prisons are overcrowded and rehabilitation is largely failing. Instead, restorative justice methodology, with its focus on resolving crimes by holding offenders accountable for their actions, is […]
