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Articles and advice on all things legalProperty Review 2018 – 11
This week past there was news of the first electronically signed property transfer having been registered. Conveyancers celebrated and lamented. Pouring cold water on this is the realisation that the deeds were not electronically lodged or registered – the Registrar...
Business Review 2018 – 10
It is common cause that our SOE’s have been managed into financial difficulty. What to do? Lend money from the public service pension scheme to such an entity and convert the loan to equity and voilà, the problem is solved. The government still controls the SOE...
Snippet 2018 – 08
Centuries ago British missionaries and traders set out for respectively upliftment and profit. Christianity and free trade went hand-in-hand. The former demanded cleanliness and the adoption of British values, the latter free trade often enforced by gunboat diplomacy....
Practice Review 2018 – 08
The Commission for Gender Equality has recommended the enforcement of gender quotas to achieve gender parity on the bench. The reasons for the dwindling numbers of females in the profession is ascribed to sexual harassment, entrenched racism and patriarchy. Women...
Property Review 2018 – 10
Shoreline Sibaya claims that it is the fastest selling retirement development in KZN: it offers a service, in partnership with Lombard Insurance Company, for retirees who have the equity tied up in the family home to provide a bridge solution whereby one can invest in...
Business Review 2018 – 09
This week past the KZN Premier visited RBM in Richards Bay, following a strike which threatened closure of its smelter. The Premier reportedly directed the police to assist the company in enforcing the interdicts it had obtained against those interfering with its...
Snippet 2018 – 07
More on being above reproach: much has been made in the press about Mr Zuma’s new attorney. Last week I published a note by an academic on probity in our profession: the fact is that we have individuals within our profession who cannot, by any stretch of the...
Practice Review 2018 – 07
Cheap talk and being above reproach. Much has been said about advocates Jiba and Mrwebi returning to the advocate’s profession and, indeed, the NPA. The mere fact that the SCA has found their being struck from the roll of advocates as being an inappropriate sanction,...
Property Review 2018 – 09
Market split: sectional titles make up 59% of all Cape Town property sales. A report on the KZN property scene in Industrial & Business holds that we are in a buyers’ market at present: there are more homes listings for sellers to compete with and fewer interested...
Business Review 2018 – 08
The SA sugar industry has had a 27% yoy reduction in sales, owing to our sugar tax coupled with significantly lower world sugar prices. The latter is attributable to cross-subsidisation of sugar production elsewhere. VBS bank: the funds plundered from that bank is...
Timber Farming and the National Water Act
- Dr John Scotcher Prior to 1972, the establishment of large-scale state-sponsored and private afforestation was promoted to supply the increasing demand for mining and structural timber. There were no laws before 1972 that limited the expansion of plantation...
Practice Review 2018 – 06
Order without law: ADR Universities, in the past, taught on the assumption that litigation is the primary method of dispute resolution. This mindset is therefore that which tends to dominate when lawyers are involved in dispute. Private ordering is the term used when...
Snippet 2018 – 07
Asad Essa is a sports commentator luxuriating in the World Soccer Cup spectacle. He laments the hijack of the beautiful game by nationalism and capitalism. Perhaps, but one does play for one’s country, doesn’t one? One also plays for money – who else other than filthy...
Practice Review 2018 – 05
The new Conveyancing Fee Guideline for 2018 came into operation on 1 June 2013. Reference Our Marias are but bakkies, designed for freight, with a metal rear top: why should a detainee (often not yet guilty of anything) have fewer rights of safe transport than...
Property Review 2018 – 08
The Property Practitioners Bill follows on a Concourt order dealing with changes to the Estate Agency Affairs Act. This bill provides for inspectors to vet books of practitioners. Much has been said about the inspection powers of inspectors: why would an honest...
Business Review 2018 – 07
African Bank has announced that it will differentiate its product by offering primary account holders “pockets”, each of which may have an unlimited number of members who have sight into the activity in the pocket as well as access to the funds. Great idea, especially...
Practice Review 2018 – 04
Judgements in magistrate’s courts are not binding as are High Court judgements. Nevertheless, it was reported that the Randburg Magistrate’s Court accepted that digital letters of demand (SMSs) complied with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and are...
Property Review 2018 – 07
Services on tribal land: as I understand these things, one is allowed to build on your allocated plot on tribal land without submitting building plans and without necessarily having to connect to a formal road, water, sewerage or electrical grid. In municipal areas...
