About Us

Human Rights, Public Interest and Class Actions
Abrahams Kiewitz have established itself as a spirited legal firm which increasingly has shaped its traditional legal work around a strategic vision of being a leader in developing and shaping law around human rights, public interest and class action which is uncharted territory in South African jurisprudence. In pursuit of this strategic vision, the firm as forged strategic partnerships with local civil society structures and other firms which share this vision, including Hausfeld (http://www.hausfeldllp.com/, which is a global leader in class action litigation in the USA and other countries where the legal system is more sophisticated, allowing for public interest litigation to counter-act poor governance, corporate greed.
Generally in law a class action is a representative action wherein the constitutional dispensation allows that a big group of litigants may bring a claim for damages against a defendant, usually private sector or government. Within the South African context the firm has made a significant contribution through its work with marginalized groups, its ongoing research and litigation, firstly in proving that indeed there is a constitutional basis and consequently damages in South Africa for class action and secondly assisting marginalized groups to access this constitutional provision which whilst it is guaranteed on paper, but so often evades ordinary people and in particular marginalized groups of society.
The firm has been at the forefront of a number of class action law suits within the South African legal system, acting in the following matters which are before the courts:
• Apartheid Arms Deal: instituted a lawsuit in the United States of America courts against 23 multinational corporations who benefitted from the pre-1994 Apartheid system. In terms of the “odious debt” doctrine multinational, many of them capital and arms producers, can be held liable for damages.
• Bread-price fixing class action; in which the firm has instituted a class action against South African bread producers who were found guilty of price fixing within the bread manufacturing sector by the South African Competitions tribunal. Subsequently flowing from the legal action initiated by Abrahams Kiewitz Attorneys, it has secured an important ruling in November 2012 by the Supreme Court of Appeals in terms of which the matter will have to be heard in the Cape Town Supreme Court. Notably one of the companies implicated in the alleged price fixing, have already admitted guilt, paving the way for a settlement and thereby proving the importance of the work this firm is doing in holding corporates to account to citizens who are at the mercy of government and corporates.
• Silicosis Class Action: Acting upon instructions on behalf of former miners who have contracted silicosis arising out of exposure to mining dust during their working years, the firm has served papers on mining companies alleging corporate liability under common, statutory and constitutional legislation arguing for equitable compensation. These former miners, many of whom are destitute and reliant upon the fragile social welfare system, suffer misery and do not have anything to show for their years hard work for mining companies which have built up immense amounts of capital basically on the blood, sweat and tears of these miners who gave up their prime working years. The litigation is designed to establish the workers’ rights to compensation under the South African legislative framework and if successful will bring some form of relief either by means of an admission or declarative order of reparative compensation. It has been proven that, as early as the 1960’s, South African mining companies were aware that continued and systematic exposure to mining dust was a cause of silicosis which was well documented. There exists a considerable body of knowledge which is the result of credible research into the prevalence of silicosis and strengthens the damages which former miners live with, often with disastrous consequences for their quality of life and thereby imposing a burden on the overloaded health and social network which has to foot the through public spending. This has contributed significantly to the implosion of social services in the eastern cape, which is already notorious for poor service delivery.

Most people, at some point in time in their lives, either buy or rent a house. To many this might be the most important transaction in their lives. For this reason, at Abrahams Kiewitz, we take serious property transaction that involve purchasing or renting. This area of work has been and continuous to be one of the mainstay of the firm’s work.

The firm renders a broad spectrum of conveyancing services such as transfer of property, registration and cancellation of mortgage bond. It also acts as a services provider to most of South Africa’s commercial banks in the registration and cancellation of mortgage bonds.

The firm also acts for property developers and has developed considerable experience in areas of rezoning, development agreements, sale agreements, leases, sectional titles and building contracts.

The department’s expertise in this area is complemented by the expertise of the firm’s public interest department in respect of land reform and restitution claims and its work with Communal Property Associations.