The Companies Amendment Bill, published in September this year, has proposed significant changes to the Companies Act, which became law in 2011. As the deadline for submitting comments to the Department of Trade and Industry has been extended to 14 December this year, it is a good time to reflect on the impact the Bill…
What rights of access does a member of the public have to the securities register in terms of the Companies Act, 2008 (Companies Act)? The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in its recent judgment in Nova Property Group Holdings v Cobbett (20815/2014) [2016] ZASCA 63 (12 May 2016) has provided welcome clarity on how far…
While we are accustomed to declaring a contract valid based on its physical existence, our increasing shift to online communication and documentation requires us to review our definition of a document’s ‘validity.’ The United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (New York, 2007) establishes the general principle that communications are…
If a company is undergoing business rescue, the Companies Act states that it is immune to the commencement of any ‘legal proceeding,’ without the written consent of the business rescue practitioner. However, the phrase ‘legal proceeding’ is not defined by the Act. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) was required to scrutinise two critical questions…
