Welcome to My Blog
Articles and advice on all things legalSnippet 2020 – 07
Practice Broke? RAF attorneys were reportedly asked to hand back their un-finalised files by Thursday last week in what appears to be a cost-cutting exercise by the RAF. Insourcing is a theoretical exercise as the expertise to handle this simply does not exist within...
Snippet 2020 – 06
Practice The rigidity of Roman law of contract was ameliorated by the introduction of normative principles allowing the adaptation of law to the changing needs of the times - often expressed as good faith. Law changes slowly but one must expect our law to be...
Snippet 2020 – 05
Economics The BER announced that it expects our GDP growth to arise to 1.2% next year, double that expected for this year. The fact is that the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment will not be addressed with economic growth at this rate. The...
Snippet 2020 – 04
Economics If we take the state of our economy today, with 18-million people getting social grants, it means reprioritisation of the budgets will not pull us out of that problem. What we need is new capital, capable of creating new jobs and boosting manufacturing.”...
Snippet 2020 – 03
Economy Only one commentator picked up on the absurdity of the Development Bank of SA loan to SAA: the stated primary purpose of the bank is to promote economic development and growth and to improve the quality of lives of people and promote regional integration...
Snippet 2020 – 02
Economy The Mercury described SAA as having gone into a death spiral. Understandably, who wants to book on a plane that might never fly. This will definitely get worse. It appears that the downgrade of our credit rating to junk status is virtually a certainty. The...
Snippet 2020 – 01
Economics Same old - plus ça change(for the Lani) ; the self inflicted decline of our economy and, indeed, our state, continues: - our SOE’s are in dire straits and a turnaround is certainly not in sight ; - power outages/loadshedding has become endemic to the point...
Practice Review – Deedsview / Deedsweb
In December conveyancers were abruptly informed that the standard Deedsview access (available at deeds offices only) to documentation would be terminated and replaced with an equivalent available on the net generally. In principle this sounded great! It turned out not...
Snippet 2019 – 36
Economy Past wild claims regarding the cost of corruption in our economy estimated losses in excess of 30% of GDP. The latest on this front is a note from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr which holds that we lose about 5% of our revenue yearly as a result of fraud: be careful....
Snippet 2019 – 35
Economy Tito Mboweni says that SAA is a vanity that we cannot afford: I cannot help but hope that the mother of all strikes moves management to choose between the horns of the dilemma of either declaring insolvency or fire staff. The fact is that SAA is seriously...
Snippet 2019 – 34
Economics Flatlining. On Friday I was again privileged to attend an economic presentation by Nedbank’s Nicky Weimar. She says that our GDP growth, occillates between growth and recession, resulting in an average growth of 1% or less. This stagnation is not in line...
Snippet 2019 – 33
Economy Our MTBPS has come and gone; somewhat depressing as it outlines an economy on autopilot. The malaise affecting our economy has not been addressed. The gentle pruning of cost alone will not stimulate our economy and a tax shortfall surely awaits us; hence the...
Snippet 2019 – 32
Economics A summary of what went down this week: SA has dropped two places to 84th in the Ease of Doing Business 2020 report, fifth in Africa. We implemented a single reform this year and 4 in the past 5 years. SA still holds the top position in Africa in terms of...
Snippet 2019 – 31
Economy A very interesting development in our economic debate is the apparently growing (if grudging) acceptance of the new economic recovery strategy plan flighted by Treasury. When first released in August, this was regarded as a non-sanctioned shot in the dark. Our...
Snippet 2019 – 30
Economy Zimbabwe: same old; hyperinflation is now such that the price on the shelf may change before you get to the till. I am gobsmacked by the stupidity of its voters – but then, democracy in Africa has become a joke. Same old: The WBF, in its Global Competitiveness...
Snippet 2019 – 29
Economics Our PMI is at its lowest in 10 years; the IIF says that our SOE disaster could push our national debt to 95% of GDP. I seem to recall having read that once over 70% our economy will not recover? Casting around for comments on the topic, reveals that there is...
Snippet 2019 – 28
Economics Reform: Pali Lehola, our previous statistician-general, adressing economic and financial planning by our state, referred to our lack of forward-planning which has apparently been abandoned by our state. He speaks of our knowledge asymmetry: but we all know...
Snippet 2019 – 27
Economy The Treasury this week published its economic stimulus plan. I cannot speak for the efficacy of the plan but, like I suspect most South Africans, recognise that anything in this respect is better than nothing. For political factions to criticise the plan,...
