Legal updates and opinions
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Further update on the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme in respect of offshore assets and income
INTRODUCTION In terms of the Explanatory Memorandum on the Special Voluntary Programme ("SVDP"), the SVDP will be deemed to have come into effect on 1 [...]
Truworths vs Ackermans: the importance of carefully selecting a trade mark
Ackermans has recently been successful in a precedent setting trade mark dispute against Truworths which was heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal. The trade mark [...]
Environmental legal compliance evaluations, an indispensable risk management tool
The awareness of environmental harms being inflicted by industry is continually growing due, firstly, to the ever increasing visual presence of pollution and, secondly, due to [...]
The requirements for the transfer of a business as a going concern
ISSUE What is the proper test for determining whether a transfer of a business as a going concern has occurred? COURT'S DECISION In [...]
Ambit of inspector powers under Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 clarified
At its core the Mine Health and Safety Act No 29 of 1996 ("MHSA") aims to promote a culture of health and safety and protect the [...]
Prescription of claims: on-demand loans
A loan which is repayable on demand becomes due the moment it is advanced to the debtor. Accordingly, such a debt will prescribe (or be extinguished) [...]
South Africa’s Business Rescue regime – firing on all cylinders?
The downturn in world economies has placed business under severe pressure in the last few years. In South Africa, the knock-on effect has been felt, with [...]
Tax amendments – 2016
INTRODUCTION The Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2015, the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, 2015 and the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws [...]
The dismissal process
ISSUE When does a dismissal take place and what must be shown to prove that fact? COMMISSIONER'S DECISION In the case of Makosi [...]
QUO VADIS – business rescue or liquidation?
Going under business rescue is proving to be an increasingly attractive option for South African companies that are in financial distress since the advent of Chapter [...]
The special voluntary disclosure programme: an update and some practicalities and predicaments
By: The Werksmans Tax Team The Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (“SVDP”) kicked off on 1 October 2016 and runs until the end of June 2017. The [...]
Certain provisions of the Environmental Conservation Act remain in force
The case of the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs v Really Useful Investments (436/2015) [2016] ZASCA 156 is a reminder that certain provisions found in [...]
Can a sanction of a final written warning be substituted with one dismissal appeal?
ISSUE Can an employer substitute the sanction of a final written warning with one of dismissal on appeal? COURT’S DECISION In the case [...]
Application of changes to the LRA to TES employees earning below the threshold
ISSUE Whether the employees’ fixed term contracts were cancelled to avoid the ‘deeming provisions’ of the Labour Relations Act (“LRA”)? If so, whether the termination [...]
Prescription of on-demand loans – the Constitutional Court’s decision in Trinity v Grindstone
INTRODUCTION Towards the end of 2016, we drew to your attention a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Trinity Asset Management (Pty) Ltd [...]
The bounds of the right to strike in support of organisational rights by way of Section 21 of the LRA
Section 21 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 states that any registered trade union may notify an employer in writing that it seeks to [...]
Appointment of Information Regulator
INTRODUCTION On 7 September 2016, the National Assembly voted in favour of appointing the former IEC chairperson Advocate Pansy Tlakula as the chairperson of the [...]
Increase in minimum wage for hospitality workers
On 10 June 2016, the Minister of Labour published an amendment to the minimum wage for Sectoral Determination 14 which regulates the Hospitality sector in South [...]
New labour judgement confirms that the CCMA has teeth
CCMA and MBS TRANSPORT CC and Five Others [J1807/2015] / [JA94/2015] Since the introduction of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995, (“LRA”) the playing field [...]
The accountability of a group of strikers for misconduct during a strike
Dunlop Mixing and Technical Services (Pty) Ltd and Others v National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) obo Nganezi and Others [2016] ZALCD 9 (11 May [...]
Time to amend the Business Rescue Act?
Business rescue was introduced into our law in May 2011. But is it time for an overhaul? The business rescue legislation has been in place for [...]
REITS – some clarification of the taxation of investment vehicles in real estate in the form of REITS and controlled companies
A traffic standstill is rarely the result of retail specials; however, on 28 April 2016 the greater Johannesburg area had a gridlock on major highways on [...]
The Uber price-fixing ride: what are the anti-trust co-ordinates?
During December 2015, Spencer Meyer instituted a class action lawsuit against Uber Technologies, Inc’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, in the United States. The law suit is based [...]
Far reaching judgment of the recent silicosis class action case
INTRODUCTION The scope and magnitude of the proposed class actions envisaged in Nkala v Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Treatment Action Campaign NPC and Sonke Gender [...]
What happens to confidential information exchanged between the Competition Commission and sector regulators as the number of co-operation
The protection of confidential information has always been a feather in the cap of the Competition Commission (“Commission”). The Competition Act No. 89 of 1998 (“Competition Act”) distinctly provides [...]
