This week the Sunday Times will ask the Constitutional Court to strike
out a section of the Divorce Act that bars the media from publishing
details of divorce cases, writes Kim Hawkey in the Sunday Times.
In January the Johannesburg High Court found that section 12 of the Act “offends the right to freedom of expression†and was unconstitutional. The order must be confirmed by the Constitutional Court.
The Sunday Times had gone to court challenging this part of the law because it infringes the media’s right to publish and the public’s to receive information.
This followed a late-night urgent interdict obtained by former estate agency boss Claire Difford that had prevented the newspaper from publishing an article about a case between her and her ex- husband Ian.
Acting Judge Bruce Burman granted the interdict.
This meant readers were denied details of the country’s first paternity fraud case, in which Ian had asked the court to rescind parts of their divorce order that referred to the son he had later realised was fathered by another man.
In January, acting Judge Nazeer Cassim found that acting Judge Burman was wrong in granting the interdict against the newspaper.
Click here to read the full report, posted on the Sunday Times website.
