This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.Bloomberg reports that last month two assassins made an appointment to see bankruptcy lawyer Bouwer van Niekerk and, after he had identified himself, they shot him dead in the boardroom of his firm’s offices in Johannesburg. Van Niekerk’s brazen murder is part of a growing trend in SA in which professionals instrumental in fighting corruption are targeted by hit-men.
The names of slain lawyers adorn a Wall of Remembrance that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) erected in 2023 in Pretoria. Some 13 insolvency practitioners, tax consultants and other professionals were assassinated in 2022 and 2023, the latest years for which data is available. Judges, lawyers and forensic accountants who fear they could be next are having their cars armor-plated. “In the 40 years I’ve worked in the field, I’ve felt prosecutors in this country could be safe. That’s no longer the case. This is a very serious concern for the country.” Shamila Batohi, NPA’s national director of prosecutions, told a briefing last month. Kurt Knoop, who was helping Van Niekerk investigate a suspected cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, is among those who consider the danger too great. He received a death threat and stepped away from the probe after his business partner’s murder. No one has been arrested in connection with the killing and the authorities haven’t named any suspects. The SA Restructuring & Insolvency Practitioners Association (Saripa) is due to meet with Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to air its concerns.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antony Sguazzin & Ntando Thukwana at Moneyweb
- Read too, Concerns over non-operational scanners at Wynberg and Bellville Magistrates’ Courts, at Cape Argus
Get other news reports at the SA LabourNews home page