Africa: Employment and HR

Botswana's Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 brings sweeping reforms to employment law, fundamentally reshaping how businesses classify workers, structure contracts, and manage workplace relationships. From stricter controls on fixed-term arrangements to enhanced protections against discrimination and harassment, employers face significant compliance obligations across recruitment, leave administration, disciplinary procedures, and collective bargaining.

A South African Labour Court has stayed disciplinary proceedings after discovering that the chairperson's ruling relied on AI-generated, fictitious case citations. The judgment examines whether blind reliance on artificial intelligence tools constitutes a failure to apply independent legal reasoning, and what consequences flow from submitting fabricated authorities to courts and tribunals.

As artificial intelligence transforms workplace operations from recruiting to performance management, organizations face mounting regulatory scrutiny over high-risk AI applications under frameworks like the EU AI Act.

Botswana's Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 brings sweeping reforms to employment law, fundamentally reshaping how businesses classify workers, structure contracts, and manage workplace relationships. From stricter controls on fixed-term arrangements to enhanced protections against discrimination and harassment, employers face significant compliance obligations across recruitment, leave administration, disciplinary procedures, and collective bargaining.

In the legal profession, maintaining confidentiality in the course of practice is not just a principle, it is a daily ethical conduct. This is not unconnected to the sensitivity of the legal sector and the fact that legal practitioners and paralegals handle sensitive information of clients which carries significant implications if exposed or leaked. Ethically, client information is expected to be kept confidential, hence the attorney-client privilege serving as the legal pillar underpinning that obligation.

In South Africa, restraint of trade agreements remain enforceable after employment ends, regardless of whether termination occurs through resignation, dismissal, retrenchment, or retirement. A recent Labour Court case examined whether a retired branch manager could be bound by a two-year non-compete clause, revealing how courts assess the reasonableness and enforceability of such restraints when employees attempt to circumvent them through family members or related entities.

The Constitutional Court has clarified a critical procedural question in South African labour law: must employees or trade unions pursue conciliation at the CCMA before approaching the Labour Court after a facilitated large-scale retrenchment fails?

Across global tech ecosystems, the shift from "growth at all costs" to disciplined, efficiency-driven operations is unmistakable. Major companies have reduced headcount, restructured teams, and doubled down...

Business restructuring, technological advancement, mergers, and economic pressures frequently cause significant changes in business operations.

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A Nigerian court has ruled that professional football clubs and governing bodies bear legally enforceable obligations to players that extend beyond salary payments, encompassing medical welfare, insurance coverage...

A Lagos High Court has ruled that estate residents' associations and their security service providers can be held liable in negligence when security protocol failures result in property loss. The judgment establishes critical precedents regarding duty of care, protocol enforcement, and the shared responsibility framework governing gated community security in Nigeria.