Economy/business
Trends
A rising economic tide? Shakespeare could have been referring to our economy: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…”
It has been 14 years since our real economy has had a rising tide – but change is imminent: Knott-Craig speaks of the trilogy of hope, i.e. falling interest rates, sentiment and electricity availability, coming together.
Retail sales, last year, were mostly negative. In June SA retail sales grew by 4.1%, following on 1.1% in May.
Citibank expects our GDP to rise to 2% next year, with the current year coming in at 1.2%.
Moneyweb reports a government and private sector capex project rise to R790bn this year, compared to R193bn last year.
Despite government-related inflation having grown at well above the upper bound of our inflation target, it is expected that the SARB will begin cutting its policy rate next month. In fact, Citibank predicts a 0,75% cut by the end of this year.
The return to South African equities continues (the largest year to date foreign inflows since 2020) with our JSE reaching new heights. Bond inflows has picked up; so to our trade surplus.
Botha says that our currency is undervalued by about 10%, compared to the US $.
General news:
Decades of municipal decay is old news ( 86% of our municipalities are financially distressed) – with the result becoming ever more visible. The latest is a report that the Durban golden-mile-flagship-hotels are loath to renew rentals, owing to the decay of the beachfront and water quality. And, on which topic, 46% of our supplied water, nationally, is undrinkable.
Our Consumer Ombudsman says that our e-commerce laws are outdated and does not address contemporary problems. A significant portion of complaints to her office, relate to e-commerce issues.
Whilst on the topic – do look up web3 – touted as the future of the Internet.
Another acronym to look up is AMC – a 2022-introduced investment opportunity which is a relatively easy to manage and invest in.
With NHI on everyone’s lips, medicos are sorely needed in South Africa – it appears that the overseas training of medical students has been less than a success – the majority of students, trained by the supporters of our revolution, have not been able to pass the local board exams.
Welcome news is that SARS has introduced an ADR opportunity at the objection stage.
Ecsponent/Afristat, and apparently also Ithala, are on the ropes.
The Stats SA census crisis has deepened as its authors admit that our recent census is not up to scratch: https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/Census2022inBrief/Census2022inBriefJune2024.pdf
Why are you so busy? It’s a form of status: https://www.ted.com/talks/dorie_clark_the_real_reason_you_feel_so_busy_and_what_to_do_about_it/
Practice
News:
The following De Rebus article should be noted if you run a local trust and emigrate: https://www.derebus.org.za/changes-in-tax-residency-impact-on-trusts-a-south-african-perspective/
C-ADR, a rose by another name: https://www.macrobert.co.za/insights/posts/role-of-alternative-dispute-resolution-in-resolving-commercial-disputes-in-south-africa
WW put out an article recommending Community Property Associations in rural areas. In theory one can but agree. In practice, however, my experience has been that such associations function dismally, as those who wish to be involved do not have the expertise, unmissable opportunities exist for self-enrichment, local politics override financial decisions and, generally, the community such associations serve, have far greater expectations than such associations can serve; you cannot divide farm income between someone who does the work for profit and then share the community share of the profits between 100 people, and expect everyone to be happy: https://www.webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/community-property-associations-are-currently-a-missed-opportunity-to-stimulate-rural-economic-growth.aspx
A colleague: Mr Viljoen, has claimed R400m in loss of income, owing to the NPA having brought fraud charges, which languished. Clearly our Gauteng colleagues earn big!
A note by Judges Matter illustrates how inefficiency and delay in court structures failed in respect of harassment by a judicial officer: https://www.judgesmatter.co.za/opinions/the-urgent-need-for-an-external-independent-body-to-address-sexual-harassment-in-the-courts/
The following case, brought to my attention by Cora v/d Merwe, is interesting, in that it deals with privilege and maligning a practitioner: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2022/62
Newspaper reports hold that a class action will be brought against our four big banks for execution sales of immovable property at a fraction of their value. This very day another such was reported upon: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/durban-woman-reclaims-home-after-bank-illegally-sold-it-at-auction/
Hard news:
Our Concourt has spoken on prescription where the claimant was mentally incapacitated – the prescription period does not necessarily start running after the appointment of a curator: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2024/16.html
Labour Court practice directive 1/2024 – urgent applications to be initiated online: https://bowmanslaw.com/insights/south-africa-labour-court-practice-directive-1-of-2024-urgent-applications-to-be-initiated-on-court-online/
Big data can be had by “scraping” the web – but does it infringe on information belonging to another? H
Some years back, a local advocate was injured in a cycling accident, caused by a pothole and recovered a great deal of money from the RAF. The latest such case is a successful damages action against Ekurhuleni for the non-maintenance of a road: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2024/788.html
Restraint of trade – usual stuff: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2024/820.html
Property
Trends
A surge of residential rental prices increases in Q2 2024 reached 9.7% in June – a post-pandemic high; the fastest y-o-y price growth since 2017. Unsurprisingly, the Western Cape rental price growth outpaced the other provinces, reaching 11.7%, the fastest recorded growth since 2017. KZN, on the other hand, managed only a 1.5% rental growth.
The following Codera graph records house price trends:
From the above, it is abundantly clear that Cape Town easily outpaces the rest of the country in terms of residential property price growth. This has been said before, but Johannesburg prices are falling owing to municipal and political dysfunction.
The demand for commercial and residential space in the Cape Town city centre was met, during 2023, with a surge of new investments totalling R7.2bn – an extraordinary vote of confidence.
The low value housing sector has outperformed all others, with an annual price inflation of 10.8%, compared to an average of 3.2% for national mid-value properties.
Office space:
Reports hold that Nedbank has slashed its office space by half.
Again, whilst the rest of the country “faces a glut of empty buildings”, Cape Town has halved its office vacancy space, and is now at the lowest level since 2009.
Mixed-use developments are in vogue worldwide and South Africa is no exception – keep in mind that local developers are encouraged to include low-cost housing in such developments.
Lastly, the value of building plans passed in South Africa has dropped by some 13.4%, compared to that for the same period last year.
Legal stuff:
Sales in execution are under scrutiny as it is said that such properties are often sold by “unscrupulous” banks at a fraction of the real value: the following report is a case in point: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/durban-woman-reclaims-home-after-bank-illegally-sold-it-at-auction/as well as https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2024-08-27-kubayi-aims-to-unmask-banks-home-loan-practices/
Is an owner entitled to damages against a municipality, if the latter’s land is illegally occupied and becomes a nuisance to neighbours? https://stbb.co.za/all-about-property-balancing-act-illegally-occupied-municipal-land-that-abuts-a-holiday-resort/
Two other contributions are from the same authors:
To what extent is the holder of a right to extend a sectional scheme, liable for maintenance contributions in that scheme? https://stbb.co.za/all-about-property-holder-of-right-of-extension-in-a-sectional-title-scheme-when-does-liability-for-maintenance-contribution-arise/
Harassment in a scheme: does one use CSOS or the Harassment Act? https://stbb.co.za/all-about-property-harassment-in-a-community-scheme-must-recourse-be-sought-under-the-harassment-act-or-the-csos-act/
Estate agents are coining it… https://codera.co.za/industry-performance-indicators-for-sa/
Large developments in the pipeline are Renishaw (North Coast), Bankenveld, and a Winelands airport.
After going it alone for 30 years, the government now wants to work with the private sector to enable participation in housing developments…broke?
Comment
Two interesting issues arise from local news which I found interesting:
The first deals with the Hon. Mantashe having interfered in a filling station issue by granting a licence where none was due, simply because the applicant was a member of the correct racial group. A court struck this down; the applicants persevered in construction and the Hon Mantashe re-granted the licence. Of course, there was no political interference.
Much was published of late of legal sausage machines after judge Satchwell had a go at a couple of advocates in an asylum-seekers case. The difficulty is that even lawyers need efficiency and, duplication is the obvious route: https://ironcarrot.com/getting-good-quality-sausages-out-of-a-law-firm-data-sausage-machine/
Lighten up
On sausages:
Laws are like sausages, it’s better not to see them being made.
Das ist mir Wurst!: This means sausage to me!
Jetzt geht’s um die Wurst!: It’s all about the sausage now!
Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei: Everything has one end, only the sausage has two.
Mit der Wurst nach dem Schinken werfen: To throw the sausage after the bacon.
Die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen: To play the sulking liver sausage.
Germans say more than we do with sausage phrases – the problem with English is that one quickly gets into inappropriate territory sausageing around.
To return to our favourite topic, cheating lawyers:
