One of the key players in the trial of Fred van der Vyver is the judge - Justice Deon van Zyl. I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the man and what he has achieved.

Deon Van Zyl received a LLB degree in 1966 and a MA in Latin in 1968 at the University of Pretoria.

He has four doctorates: a Dr Jur (Leyden 1970); PhD and LLD (Cape Town 1983 and 1988 respectively); and a D Litt in Latin (Orange Free State 1989). From September 1968 to September 1969 he studied at the Universities of Paris and Hamburg. He was professor in and head of the Department of Roman Law and Legal History at the University of the Orange Free State (1971 to 1973), and part-time head of the Department of Roman Law and Legal History at the University of Pretoria from 1974 to 1979.

At present he is an honorary professor of law at the North West University; an extraordinary professor of law at the University of the Free State and a visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh.

Deon van Zyl practised as an advocate at the Free State Bar during 1973 and from 1974 to 1984 at the Pretoria Bar. In 1983 he became Senior Counsel and from 1985 to 1993 he was a Judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa. Since 1994 he has been a Judge of the Cape Provincial Division of the High Court.
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In 2004, an eight year old girl was raped in a Mandalay mosque. In 2006 a Burundian man, Nizigiyimane Saidi, was found guilty in the Khayelitsha regional court of raping the girl by magistrate Gaynor de Wee.

The matter was then referred to the Cape High Court for sentencing, but in an announcement that has shocked the girl’s family and the public, the judge set aside the conviction after the regional court magistrate had failed to respond to queries about the trial.

Mr Justice James Yekiso, the Cape High Court judge said he was “unable to make a determination on whether those (trial) proceedings were in accordance with justice”. He then set aside the conviction.

Some other reasons he gave were that there was no record of the interpreter having been sworn in and that the magistrate never bothered to interrogate conflicting statements made by the victim.

To rub salt in the wounds of the victim and her family, the court didn’t even bother to tell them that the man had been set free. Apparently they had to hear of it via a friend of the family!

“I am very angry about this and we are going to try to go to Khayelitsha court to bring it up again,” the girl’s mother said.
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Hey guys! Make sure your TV licence is up-to-date, or the wrath of the TV police may fall on you! And even those who do pay, don’t look so smug - they could be after you too because of imagined crime, cockups with their admin and a multitude of other reasons. Here are some tips for you:

Keep ALL your TV licence fee receipts. Yes this means for more than 5 years at least! TV licence debt does not prescribe after three years like many other forms of debt! They can easily accuse of of visciously and premeditatively not paying their account several years later. And its up to YOU to prove that you did or did not pay it.

You can also mess up by selling, giving away or having your TV stolen. Don’t dare move house without telling them within 30 days either! Yeah, if you don’t notify the SABC about these actions, you can also be branded an evil criminal bent on the destruction of society! You need to supply the SABS with an affidavit, with exact details of the sale, or giveaway, and a police case number in the event of theft. If the set is beyond repair, you’ll need to supply a letter from a TV repair shop verifying this.

If there is a mess up, the first people to contact you will be the debt collectors. If payments are late, an account incurs a penalty of 10% per month to a maximum of 100% per annum. Then they will take you to court where anyone found guilty in court of failing to comply with the law may be sentenced to a fine of not more than R500.00 or to imprisonment for up to six months, or both. Hey, isn’t that more than you get for corruption these days!

“The Broadcasting Act stipulates that the SABC may require a person who uses a TV set, or a person who is the owner or occupier of any premises on which a television set is used, to furnish such information as may be prescribed or necessary in order to determine whether the Act is being complied with. You may be required to furnish your TV licence, ID document and/or TV licence account number. If requested, a TV set must be produced for inspection. Information such as receipt numbers, number of television sets, addresses, etc, may also be requested in order to determine the validity of a television licence. Authorised TV Licence Inspectors may enter any premises to carry out an inspection.”

So unless you want to be branded as a horrendous crimina, you better fork out their R225 odd they demand. Yeah they also make bucks off advertising too. It’s amazing how the BBC is paid from licence fees, don’t have any advertising and can still make money. We are forced to watch these adverts every few minutes and still pay!

For any info or questions you have, you can pop over to (yes they have one) http://www.tvlic.co.za