Legal Articles and Guides

Borrowers with more than one debt outstanding were given some protection last week when the SCA ruled that the interest rate on short-term loans after the first loan cannot exceed 3% a month. GroundUp reports Micro Finance SA (MFSA) had challenged regulations promulgated under the National Credit Act reducing the interest rate on a second short-term loan taken out in a 12-month period from 5% to 3% a month.

What does it take to get a drink in Fish Hoek? Exactly 200 years and a judgment in favour of Pick n Pay. Times Select reports PnP won a Western Cape Liquor Authority appeal this week against the liquor licensing tribunal, paving the way for it to open a liquor store in the town.

Philip Morris International – one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world – sees SA’s mooted tobacco regulations as an impediment to its plan to phase out its cigarette brands in favour of healthier alternatives. According to a Business Day report, the company wants to ultimately replace all its cigarettes with products that do not produce harmful smoke, such as e-cigarettes and its new iQOS range of devices, that heat instead of burn tobacco.

The JSE censured Pepkor and fined it R5m yesterday for failing to tell its shareholders that it stood surety for R15bn of Steinhoff International’s debt, and about its loans to senior management. Pepkor issued a separate statement saying it ‘has acknowledged that inadequate disclosures were made during the process of its listing and the publication of its annual financial statements in 2017’, notes a BusinessLIVE report.

The battle by companies to profit from social grants rages on with another round of court action, this time between Sassa and another Net1 subsidiary, which will be heard today. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, the Net 1 subsidiary, Moneyline Financial Services, is asking the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to compel Sassa to accept the consent forms – confirming bank accounts into which the social grants should be paid – of beneficiaries through Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).

While many SA businesses are either not registered for tax or are paying very little tax, SARS is taking a ‘shotgun’ approach to attacking large tax-compliant corporates. Major SA corporates employ dedicated tax managers who spend between 50% and 80% of their time dealing with multiple queries from multiple SARS offices, claiming they are ‘under siege’.

The case that is expected to set a precedent on whether shareholders can sue directors and auditors of companies under the new Companies Act is headed for the SCA, says a Business Day report. On Friday, Judge Letty Molopa-Sethosa, of the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), granted African Bank Investments (Abil) BEE shareholders – Hlumisa Investment Holdings and Eyomhlaba Investment Holdings – leave to appeal her judgment in the SCA.

African Bank’s BEE shareholders have applied for leave to appeal against the recent dismissal by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) of its legal action against former CEO Leon Kirkinis, his fellow board members and Deloitte. A Business Day report says the case could set legal history by enabling shareholders to sue directors and auditors.

The SA Post Office (Sapo) has again missed its self-imposed deadline to sort through its backlog from the two-week strike in July and still has about 7.8m items to dispatch in order to catch up, says a Business Day report. CEO Mark Barnes has previously said that the Post Office would get back to normal at the end of September and then again at the end of October.

The City of Cape Town’s R429.47m High Court civil damages claim against listed construction groups WBHO, Aveng and Stefanutti Stocks – related to collusion and bid-rigging on the Cape Town Stadium – has been set down to be heard in 2020. Business Report notes a decision has not yet been taken by the city on whether to add Group Five to the claim.

Sasol Oil has won an appeal lodged with the SCA, over a ruling which required the oil company to pay R1.3bn to SARS. A Fin24 report says the group issued a notice to shareholders indicating that the SCA upheld its appeal against the Tax Court of Johannesburg's ruling in favour of SARS in June 2017.

A Benoni-born woman now living in Australia as a result of a family tragedy is fighting to get the man to whom she sold her family business to pay up, notes Legalbrief. Sonia van der Merwe’s entire family – her parents, brother and sister-in-law – were murdered near Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga in 2004, reports the Sunday Times.

The courts have stopped Eskom from cutting off the electricity of two rogue municipalities that owe it billions, telling government it needs to take responsibility and find a solution to the problem of defaulting municipalities. The Top 10 defaulting municipalities owe Eskom R9.5bn, notes a Business Day report. The judgments are the result of applications brought by businesses in Maluti-A-Phofung (Harrismith) and Emfuleni (Veereniging and Vanderbijlpark) which faced electricity interruptions despite having paid the municipalities for electricity.

Minority shareholders in the Airports Company of SA (Acsa) are heading back to court in the continuing saga over the sale of their shares back to government after it reneged on its promise to privatise and then list the company that manages SA’s nine biggest airports. A Moneyweb report notes that in August and December last year, a High Court settlement was reached between minorities, Acsa and the Minister of Transport ordering Acsa to purchase the minorities’ shares out of its retained income.

The SABC was 'technically insolvent' and was unable to fulfil its financial obligations, CEO Madoda Mxakwe said yesterday. 'If we were a private company, we would have been recapitalised,' he said at a briefing with reporters in Johannesburg, on the dire financial situation at the public broadcaster. He said the threat of commercial insolvency was also increasing.