Notes from the law reports — useful, and slightly cheering
• S v Van Rooyen 2002 (5) SA 246 (CC); [2002] ZACC 8 is twenty-four years old and still the case to cite when someone says that magistrates are not judicial officers. They are.
• G.J v C.J [2026] ZAGPJHC 785; [2026] 3 All SA 623 (GJ) (17 July 2026) — a Randburg protection order survived appeal because the High Court read the messages as a climate, not as single weather events.
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals v Minister of Justice [2016] ZACC 46; 2017 (1) SACR 284 (CC) turns ten in December.
• President of the RSA v SARFU 1999 (4) SA 147 (CC); [1999] ZACC 9 remains the recusal test.
• S v Makwanyane 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC); [1995] ZACC 3 remains the dignity case.
The official late-spring cartoon. An acting magistrate, files under one arm, knocks on a door marked Senior Magistrate because a part-heard will not settle itself. The senior opens the door as if that is what doors are for. “Come in. Sit down. Show me the page that is troubling you.” Later they are both at the desk, and the file looks smaller than it did in the passage.
A note from Neelan Karikan. A senior who still remembers how to open a door has already taught the only lesson that lasts: authority that cannot be approached is not authority we should want.