Cases
Constitutional Court
Mark appeared as lead counsel with Salim Nakhjavani for the Rule of Law Project. The Court held that anti-Zionist words amounted to hate speech.
Minister of Finance v Afribusiness NPC [2022] ZACC 4
Mark acted for the Rule of Law Project. The Court held that that the Minister’s regulations to the Preferential Procurement Act were ultra vires.
Mark acted for the South African Institute of Race Relations. The Court held that the local government elections could not be postponed beyond the time set in the Constitution.
Democratic Alliance v Electoral Commission of South Africa and Others [2021] ZACC 30
Mark acted for the South African Institute of Race Relations to oppose the reopening of candidate nominations in the local government elections.
Qwelane v South African Human Rights Commission and Another ZACC 22
Mark appeared as lead counsel for Mr. Qwelane with Douglas Ainslie as his junior. The Court confirmed that the hate speech clause in the Equality Act is an unconstitutional infringement on the right to freedom of expression. The hearing is available to watch on the Constitutional Court’s YouTube channel.
Jordaan and Others v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and Others 2017 (6) SA 287 CC
The court decided that property purchasers are not liable to pay municipalities the historical debts that were incurred by sellers. Mark produced written submissions for the Johannesburg Attorneys Association to assist the court in determining whether conveyancers would have had a duty to inform purchasers of the existence of historical debt.
Supreme Court of Appeal
Qwelane v South African Human Rights Commission and Another 2020 (2) SA 124 (SCA)
An appeal which held that the hate speech clause in the Equality Act was an unconstitutional infringement on the right to freedom of expression.
Huysamen and Another v Absa Bank Limited and Others [2020] ZASCA 127
An appeal arising from an application to set aside a sale in execution after transfer had occurred.
High Court
Cape Bar v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and Others 2020 (6) SA 165 (WCC)
A challenge to the legal practice council election which prevented Adv Mayosi from taking up her seat because space was set aside for only one black woman on the council.
Nelson Mandela Foundation Trust and Another v Afriforum NPC and Others 2019 (6) SA 327 (GJ)
An Equality Court case which declared displays of the 1928 Flag to be hate speech.
Nelson Mandela Foundation Trust v Afriforum NPC and Another [2019] ZAGPJHC 324
A contempt of court application resulting from the 1928 Flag case which held that a person who had not been party to the original matter was not in contempt of court for displaying an image of the flag on twitter. Mark appeared as junior to Cedric Puckrin SC.
An application to determine the scope of a Sheriff’s duty to a municipality when conducting a sale in execution.
South African Human Rights Commission v Khumalo 2019 (1) SA 289 (GJ)
A hate speech complaint before the Equality Court finding that Velaphi Khumalo had committed the act of hate speech for propagating hatred and inciting harm on the grounds of race. The Court held that a conjunctive reading of the hate speech clause in the Equality Act was required. Mark appeared as lead counsel with Salim Nakhjavani.
Huysamen and Another v Absa Bank Limited Others [2017] ZAGPPHC 611
An application to set aside a sale in execution after transfer had occurred. The case deals with the intersection between property law and the law of insolvency.
Argent Industrial Investment (Pty) Ltd v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 2017 (3) SA 146 (GJ)
A leading case on prescription and municipal debts.
Smit v City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality [2017] ZAGPJHC 386
A leading case on the reversal of illegal use charges.
Tribunals
An appeal before the Broadcasting Complaints Commission which required eNCA to apologize for broadcasting a false statement.
Pillay Verashni vs Afriforum and MMA and SANEF
An appeal before the Press Council on whether an article calling for white men to be denied the right to vote amounted to hate speech or discriminatory speech in terms of the press code.