Estates not law unto themselves

Private estates cannot enforce road traffic law or “domestic rules” similar to the curfews and pass laws of the apartheid era‚ the High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled this week. The judgment was the conclusion to a long-running case brought by a KwaZulu-Natal resident who argued that speed trapping in Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate was unlawful. “Domestic rules” include estates allowing domestic workers to walk on the streets only between 6am and 6pm.