Serjeant

Institutions that are supposed to play the game and enforce the game are increasingly broken in South Africa, writes Serjeant at the Bar. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglas North was particularly noted for his emphasis of the importance of institutions for economic progress. He argued that institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic…

A view of the Pretoria High Court. Cornel van Heerden, Gallo Images, Beeld, file Serjeant at the Bar writes that Judge Norman Davis remains an exception among judges in that he went against the grain and delivered a judgment that is legally inexplicable.One has to doff one's legal cap to Judge Norman Davis.In his judgment, which…

The National Assembly at Parliament. Members of the National Assembly are, in effect, captives of their party bosses. They have to toe the party line. If they don't, that is the end of their careers - and they will not make the list for the next election.The decade of state capture highlighted the inadequacy of…