News and Commentary
Protection of personal information act, 2013 (“POPI act”)
By just following the news nowadays most people are at least vaguely familiar with the new POPI Act but few are familiar with the finer points of the Act. One the of most pertinent issues is that...
The prescribed rate of interest in terms of the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act has decreased
The prescribed rate of interest in terms of the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act has decreased from 9,75% to 7,75% with effect from 1 June 2020. The prescribed rate of interest, determined by the...
How to rescue your business from the impact of COVID-19
Many businesses in South Africa face the very real risk of closing their doors permanently as a result of their inability to trade during the lengthy full lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19...
COVID-19 Tax Relief Measures
The National Treasury has issued an explanatory note on the additional COVID-19 tax relief measures which will be included in revised drafts of the 2020 Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill and...
Title Deed Restrictions
Beware of Restrictive Title Deeds It is not uncommon for buyers to purchase what they believe to be their dream home, only to discover that they cannot add on an extra storey because of the...
Effects of Social Media on Shareholder Activism
Social media is used in everyday life by millions of people throughout the world. People post pictures on Instagram, send tweets on Twitter and update their Facebook statuses and have constant...
Stokvels: A Mechanism of Informal Social Security
For centuries people have entered into various forms of money saving schemes in an attempt to save and grow their money. People try to save and grow their money for a variety of reasons, such as,...
Anti Dissapation Order
What to do if a debtor is intentionally selling of his assets to avoid payment of a future judgment? The old proverb "the wheels of justice turn slowly" is unfortunately well known in the South...
Zamuxolo Gulwa: “Law is a mechanism for change”
https://youtu.be/s3Jc6ZYZfDg From herding cattle as a young boy in the Eastern Cape to moving into the top echelons of Africa’s oldest law firm, Fairbridges Wertheim Becker, is the journey...
An altruistic Fairbridge’s conveyancer raises the bar in customer service
https://youtu.be/PLthebYwR2I Melanie Kilian, a conveyancer with heart from Fairbridges Wertheim Becker Attorneys in Cape Town, is an inspiration to her colleagues and clients. Her passion is...
Felicia Hlophe: From Ladysmith to lady lawyer
https://youtu.be/d0yPONx-lyc Felicia is an associate lawyer at Fairbridge Wertheim Becker, the oldest law firm in Africa. Born in Ladysmith, Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), she spent her early childhood...
Book Review – Effective Legal Interviewing and Counselling
by M A (Riette) du Plessis (106 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are...
Book Review – Employment Rights
by John Grogan (3rd Edition) (472 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "Who first invented work, and bound the free and holiday-rejoicing spirit down to that dry drudgery at the desk's...
Book Review – Human Resource Management in Public Schools
A Practical Guide by Jaco Deacon (310 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "Who, with a natural instinct to discern, What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn."– William...
Book Review – Dugard’s International Law
by John Dugard, Max Du Plessis, Tiyanjana Maluwa & Dire Tladi (Fifth Edition) (938 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations –...
Book Review – Public Procurement Regulation
by Sope Williams-Elegbe and Geo Quinot (editors) (370 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little...
Transformation of Parental Leave in South Africa
On the 27 November 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa signed various amendments to labour legislation into law. These amendments have introduced additional parental leave benefits for fathers, adoptive...
Changing the face of Contractual Agreements
Section 11 (1) of ECTA provides that: ‘Information is not without legal force and effect merely on the grounds that it is wholly or partly in the form of a data message.’ This is a simple sentence...
Do you have a right to a view?
The increase of state regulation and adjudication of neighbour disputes about building works has now migrated from the private law context of reasonableness to the public law context of legality....
Waging War on Bad Wages: The New National Minimum Wage Act
The new National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018 (NMWA) has been in the pipeline for quite some time and was finally signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa coming, into effect on 01 January 2019....
Whose responsibility is it to verify that a water meter is working correctly?
In the 2016 case of Euphorbia (Pty) Ltd t/a Gallagher Estates v City of Johannesburg, the City of Johannesburg ("the City") instituted action against Euphorbia for arrears in respect of water...
Book Review – Oil, Gas and Mining Law in Africa
by Thierry Lauriol and Émilie Raynaud (584 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing...
Compliance with the companies act 71 of 2008
Clients are reminded of the continued need to review their shareholders agreements and their Memorandum of Incorporation ("MOI") in order to ensure that the terms of their shareholders agreement are...
Book Review – Evidential Aspects of Law Enforcement
by Marga van Rooyen (433 pages) Juta & Co (Pty) Ltd www.jutalaw.co.za "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data"– from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...