Practice
News
- Lawyers behaving badly:
- A gentleman, having forged, amongst other things, a right of appearance certificate as attorney, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.
- Judge Parker has been found guilty of gross misconduct by our JCT.
- Advocate Nthai (also our Limpopo safety MEC) has pleaded guilty to corruption, having attempted to solicit a R5m bribe in a mining rights dispute before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
- The Concourt has dismissed Nummawan’s urgent application to have police minister Mchunu’s leave set aside.
- Whilst on Nummawan; the former Prez’s ninth attempt to remove advocate down as prosecutor. If anything, this gentleman is persistent and given of remarkable recuperative ability.
- Nummawan’s advocate, Mr Mpofu sought to argue why his client could not trust a judge chairing the latest commission. Stalingrad fatigue?
- RAF: our Minister of Transport wishes to reintroduce the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill. This has been roundly criticised in the press; it being the said that the Bill is unworkable, not thought through, unaffordable and un-unconstitutional.
- Of more importance to us lesser citizens, is a judgement in which the Johannesburg High Court ruled that individuals are entitled to question police officers and record the conduct of the police into action without threat of arrest. This should have significant implications for police accountability. The case is not yet available on Saflli.
- On practice:
- This article gives a list of items which may be written off and over which period: https://www.news24.com/business/money/what-can-you-claim-as-a-tax-deduction-for-wear-and-tear-20250720-0542?utm
- The Fair Pay Bill was proposed by BOSA but has not yet been taken up into legislation – essentially it provides that employers must disclose remuneration of all its employees including directors.
- Another bill deals with Labour proposals, relaxing the rules for firing staff and doubling retrenchment pay.
- The SCA has ruled that your membership of a CC does not automatically attribute blame to you if another member cooks the books; not yet available on Saflli: https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/export/sites/cdh/news/publications/2025/Practice/Corporate-Commercial/Downloads/Corporate-Commercial-Alert-23-July-2025.pdf
- The CCMA is a has the authority to dismiss a referral for want of prosecution: https://www.ensafrica.com/news/detail/10526/stuck-on-the-tarmac-the-legal-limits-of-the-c
- The following article, on convertible preference shares and CGT, is probably beyond the ken of most of us, for nerds only: https://www.webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/understanding-the-implications-of-capital-gains-tax-on-convertible-preference-shares.aspx
- Paul Price, a colleague, drew my attention to an issue which I have not yet previously encountered, i.e. does the action of lodging an L&D account, infringe the beneficiaries’ rights to privacy in terms of POPI? If this interests you, I can pass his notes on to you together with his email address.
Hard news
- Most of our municipalities do not maintain the roads within the boundaries to the required standard: a case, which I could not find on Saffli, awarded damages to the estate of a person who became a paraplegic as a result of a pothole: https://www.netwerk24.com/netwerk24/Nuus/Munisipaliteite/staat-moet-r26-miljoen-betaal-na-slaggat-verpleegster-verlam-laat-20250719?
- I had, in dealing with property, noted the latest snotklap handed to one of our banks in its attempts to dispose of property, held as security under a bond. The following case lists, at paragraph 16, the compliance requirements in order to achieve such an order: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2025/732.html
- Zero-tolerance of failure to pass breathalyser tests: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZALCJHB/2025/298.pdf
Conveyancing/property
- New conveyancing tariffs became applicable on 1 August.
- I hold a notice, issued by the Johannesburg Deeds Registry (via West), which deals with the relocation of the Johannesburg deeds office – ask me for a copy.
- My attention was drawn to a case dealing with the criteria applicable for deciding whether agricultural property falls under act 70/70 or not: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2025/110.html
As an aside – do read the dissenting judgement at 39.
- A judgement, dealing with the Esta act and whether an occupier has the right to make improvements to his homestead, is worth noting: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2025/105.pdf
- An interesting article, by West on co-developers in a self-build sectional scheme, where the rights to develop, ceded to the purchasers, lapse, is worth a look – ask me for a copy.
- Another note by West, deals with the question whether a spouse, of a partner holding life-the rights in a Housing scheme for retired persons, is entitled to enjoy those rights after the death of the partner; ask me for a copy.
Property
Trends
- What news on property trends is available is not encouraging:
- The following graph by Codera shows that both residential and non-residential construction activity has declined substantially on a per capita basis. Normally this would lead one to assume that property prices should go up owing to a shortage of availability, but the contrary applies – except for Cape Town, property prices have been stagnant in real terms.
- The above statistic is reinforced by another growth from the same source: https://codera.co.za/buildings-completed-by-type-in-sa/
- Nedbank statistics show a sharp decline in fixed investment plans for the first half of this year. All over such investments are now drawn from private investment with no new projects announced by our government and public corporations.
- Nevertheless, BetterBond reports a 7.4% yoy uptick in bond applications; primarily on the back of dropping interest rates; think affordability.
- Stock availability (read land scarcity) has made both Cape Town and Durban hotspots for property investment. Interestingly, there are several large developments in the offing or recently completed; being –
- Phesantekraal (Cape Town);
- Club Med (KZN North Coast);
- The Oceans Umhlanga residential tower mixed-used development.
- The Accelerate Property Fund Reit will not be doing a distribution to shareholders this year owing to its R70m Fourways Mall loss.
- A shortage of cheap stock always leads to pressure on residential housing leases; perhaps this is why the TPN Residential Rental Monitor shows an increase in tenants in good standing.
News
- Well-run municipalities are the exception of late, and these are extensively reported on. Badly run municipalities don’t make the news that much; Kannaland, think Ladismith, Calitzdorp, made that the exception hands down with pervasive negative material findings reported by the AG.
- The fact is that most of our municipalities are in dire straits owing to leadership (political) instability, incompetence and governance failure. What to do? Royalty to the rescue! An agreement, signed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and our Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, will focus on providing technical expertise and strategic support for high-impact project in infrastructure, asset management and municipal infrastructure. The following says it all: “Unfortunately, we do not have the critical skills any more to be able to enact the turbocharging of infrastructure development that we need.”
- There has been much talk, of late, in the news of small solar users being penalised for their non-purchase of power from Eskom leading to that entity losing income. One understands the Eskom position in terms of lost income but can hardly sympathise, given that the capital outlay in order to insulate one from outages brought about by that entity, was certainly necessary. Judgement is still out.
- You will recall that Sakeliga took on the Minister of Trade, Industry etc. over the decision that the PPRA would not issue fidelity fund certificates to non-BEE compliant estate agencies. Min. Tau has withdrawn his opposition to this case.
- Our capital cities seem not to be able to get their billing right:
- The cleaning levy, imposed by Tshwane, imposed on those not using the city’s refuse removal service (typically gated communities and shopping malls), has been struck down by our High Court.
- Similarly, the CoJ non-sectional title refuse charge tariff, imposed on residential accommodation buildings that were already paying a refuse charge tariff, has been declared inconsistent with legislation by our High Court.
- An interesting sidenote is that the Netcare Christian Barnard Memorial Hospital, in Cape Town, will be redeveloped into a mix of luxury and hotel residential accommodation.
- The proposed Cape Winelands Airport is gaining momentum in that its EA application has been submitted. The proposed site is north-east of Durbanville, Western Cape.
Legal stuff
- A recent report by Daily Investor on the Johannesburg Deeds Office deals with the expected delays that will be and has been brought about by the office being run down and it’s expected relocation in September. The report is somewhat lurid but states that selling property in Johannesburg could now take six months or longer.
- Bank attorneys dealing with property repossessions, seem not to be able to get their ducks in a row and one wonders how they manage to retain their business: a recent judgement by Judge Southwood, Johannesburg, cited numerous instances of non-compliance with court rules and ethical standards. Undoubtedly this will present grist to the mill for the impending class action against banks, this set down for next year.
- The new proposed conveyancing tariffs kicked in on one August.
- The latest CSOS practice directives may be found at: https://csos.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CSOS-Consolidated-Practice-Directives-2025-approved.pdf
Lighten up
“The only thing worse than a lawyer is a lawyer who’s also a politician.”
Q: What do lawyers use for birth control?
A: Their personalities.
