Spanish law firm Pérez-Llorca bumped 12 lawyers to partner across Madrid, Mexico City, and Bogotá while tapping corporate attorney José Luis Romeu to run its London office. The promotions hit corporate hard with six new partners, while tax grabbed two spots, and the rest got split between finance, competition, regulatory, and administrative practices. Corporate lawyer Melchor Álvarez de Mon is bouncing from Madrid to London as part of the shuffle.
The firm also elevated five lawyers to counsel, with four landing in Madrid and one heading to Bogotá. Madrid scored eight new partners total, followed by Mexico City with three, and Bogotá getting one promotion. Álvaro Ramírez de Haro is wrapping his seven-year run leading the London base...
Securitize grabbed Jerome Roche as its new general counsel after the spot sat empty since Tom Eidt bailed earlier in the year. Roche comes from PayPal, where he ran legal for digital assets and helped launch their PayPal USD stablecoin while racking up over two decades of experience across fintech and banking sectors.
The tokenization platform said bringing Roche aboard marks a serious move as the company gears up to go public and expand regulated infrastructure across American and European markets. Securitize handles tokenization services for funds with four billion bucks under management.
Roche spent three and a half years at PayPal before that gig, and he previously worked as a partner at Linklaters, plus over ten years at Mayer...
Eugene Modise grabbed another term leading the ANC's Greater Tshwane Region without anyone challenging him at the party conference near Pretoria, even though fraud accusations keep hanging over his head from a security contract mess. The deputy mayor and finance boss got hit with a forensic report claiming he broke councillor rules by not fully disclosing ties to Triotic Protection Services, which scored massive municipal deals worth hundreds of millions, and the DA filed criminal complaints earlier this month.
Modise clapped back, saying opposition attacks amount to malicious garbage designed to wreck his reputation before the upcoming elections, since he stepped down as company director before joining the council. The party...
Gauteng's education department says almost every Grade 1 and Grade 8 kid finally scored a school spot for next year, with over 342,000 learners placed out of roughly 358,000 applicants by mid-December. About 15,000 students still need slots, mostly Grade 8 kids in packed districts like Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, where some high schools got thousands of applications for just a couple of hundred openings.
Officials ran capacity checks before placements started, and they keep shuffling unplaced students to nearby schools with empty desks while handling thousands of appeals from families who got bumped. Late applications open later this month for anyone who missed the main window or screwed up their paperwork, with around 87,000 spots...
Gauteng High Court judges tossed the Information Regulator's attempt at blocking matric results from appearing in newspapers, ruling that listing exam numbers instead of names does not violate privacy laws under POPIA. The full bench called the regulator's argument about students figuring out classmates' grades through seating arrangements a poorly constructed thought experiment with zero real-world evidence backing it up, and judges pointed out nobody has complained about actual harm from this tradition over the years.
The regulator slapped a five-million-rand fine on the Department of Basic Education for refusing to stop newspaper publications after claiming the practice still breaks data protection rules, despite a settlement back...
Deputy Police Minister Polly Boshielo rolled through Mankweng Police Station in Limpopo's Capricorn District to check how cops are handling holiday crime surges and road safety during festive operations that run through mid-January. Provincial Commissioner Thembi Hadebe and Transport MEC Violet Mathye tagged along to inspect roadblocks catching drunk drivers and stolen goods while reviewing officer readiness across different units, teaming up for the seasonal push.
The crew hit up Paledi Mall to talk with residents about local safety concerns before stopping at Thuthuzela Care Centre to drop comfort packs for gender-based violence survivors. Walkabouts like this help officials adjust policing based on what communities actually need...
People living in Tumahole finally got taps working after going two decades without reliable water, thanks to Municipal Manager Futhuli Mothamaha pushing upgrades through the Free State township. The pilot borehole project in the Mandela section brought immediate relief alongside a nearly finished 15-kilometer pipeline that restored access for thousands who spent years hauling water from far-off sources, and similar fixes helped Koppies and Kwakwatsi end their 20-year dry spell.
Mothamaha landed the gig back in August and started filling vacant positions across technical services while rolling out a two-billion-rand budget that funds treatment plant refurbishments and sanitation improvements. The manager runs regular service delivery...
Johannesburg cops bagged 173 drunk drivers between early and mid-December while running Tshela Thupa operations meant to clean up roads during the holiday season, when traffic gets wild. Police Chief Patrick Jaca said the weekly haul should freak out anyone who cares about staying alive, and previous sweeps earlier that month grabbed 182 people trying to drive while wasted.
Getting popped for driving under the influence in South Africa hits different since first-timers face fines ranging from 2,000 to 120,000 rand plus possible jail time and license suspensions lasting six months to a year. Repeat offenders risk sitting behind bars for up to six years while losing their licenses for five to ten years, and convictions stick on criminal...
Executors defending Richard Foxton's estate are backing a property handover worth 10 million rand to Thuli Madonsela after the late PR guy switched his bequest from cash to a Cape Town golf estate house months before dying. His four kids are beefing with the former Public Protector over which will count, the 2020 cash version or the 2025 property one, and handwriting experts jumped in to check if signatures got forged or messed with.
Madonsela filed court papers claiming the older will better reflect their relationship and arguing the newer document looks sketchy, given Foxton croaked four months after signing it. The executors insist they have to follow what they see as his final wishes, while the children want their trust protected...
