De Rebus

Picture source: Getty/iStock Death is one of the few certainties of life, yet preparing for what happens after we die remains a subject many South Africans avoid. For some, talking about a Will is seen as tempting fate. For others, the cost of consulting a legal practitioner is a barrier. Many simply believe that because they do not own significant assets, they do not need a Will.

This September, De Rebus celebrates its 70th birthday. Seven decades is a remarkable milestone for any publication, but it is particularly significant for a journal that has grown alongside South Africa’s legal profession and, in many ways, provides a record of how that profession has changed. The first issue appeared in 1956 as De Rebus Procuratoriis, published by the then Incorporated Law Society of the Transvaal.

This is an advertorial and has been paid for by the client. An unmistakable phenomenon in South African legal practice, in the past six months, is the widespread use of generative AI for legal writing. The more one reads the legal writing of Large Language Models (LLMs), the more one recognises their style. Yes, there are slight differences between Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok, but the turns of phrase are instantly recognisable. To us, though, style is a sideshow. What matters is substance.

Western Cape Division of the High Court Judge Taswell Papier speaking at the Cape Law Society annual general meeting in Cape Town in 2018. By Judge Vincent Saldanha While some things in life may be inevitable, the way a life is lived is not. At the funeral service of the late Judge Taswell Papier, we listened in sheer amazement as Professor Joy Papier bravely and eloquently paid tribute to the life of her late husband, Justice Papier.

PO Box 36626, Menlo Park 0102 Docex 82, Pretoria E-mail: derebus@derebus.org.za Fax (012) 362 0969 Letters are not published under noms de plume. However, letters from practising attorneys who make their identities and addresses known to the editor may be considered for publication anonymously.

Newly admitted legal practitioners might still be struggling to manage all their responsibilities and how to manage their practices. Mental fatigue makes this challenging venture even more daunting. As we move into September, mental fatigue and possibly burnout, is faced by many legal practitioners. This raises the question as to what is regarded as mental fatigue?

Picture source: Getty/iStock The intricacy between family, immigration and refugee law is a difficult encounter for practitioners. Like in many other circumstances, violence against women and children remains a tragedy; irreconcilable for foreign spouses who are victims of violence and illegal in the host country: there lies a labyrinth for a foreign spouse whose spousal visa has expired because the South African permanent-resident partner has withdrawn support, often amidst domestic violence.

Picture source: Getty/iStock This September, De Rebus celebrates its 70th birthday. From relatively humble beginnings in 1956 it has become the voice of the profession. In 1956 the then Law Society of the Transvaal launched the first edition of De Rebus (‘The Affairs of Attorneys’) under the title ‘De Rebus Procuratoriis’. Theo Boezaart was the first editor. It was a brave decision to launch a new periodical with a potentially limited circulation – almost exclusively to attorneys.

Picture source: Getty/iStock For more than five decades South African courts have relied on the triadic sentencing framework articulated in S v Zinn 1969 (2) SA 537 (A). The well-known formulation of the crime, the offender and the interests of society remains a daily feature of sentencing judgments across magistrates’ courts and High Courts alike. However, South Africa in 2026 is markedly different from South Africa in 1969.

Picture source: Getty/iStock The Constitution, as the supreme source of law in South Africa, guarantees everyone, who has been arrested for allegedly committing a criminal offence, the right to a fair trial, which includes a variety of related rights such as the right to prepare their defence and the right to a trial before an ordinary court (s 35(3) of the Constitution).