Legal Articles and Guides

Former Steinhoff chairperson Christo Wiese is ‘satisfied’ with an offer to settle his R60bn damages claim against Steinhoff through a payment of R7.9bn, the company has announced.

Steinhoff says it has reached an agreement of up to €78.1m (R1.37bn) with some of its former directors and its insurers, as it battles to settle lawsuits that threaten its survival, according to a Business Day report.

Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy Gwede Mantashe has announced the winning bidders (listed in the report online) for emergency power procurement that may generate about R45bn in private sector investment and ease the chronic power shortages.

The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) has eight days to immediately issue outstanding operating licences to estate agents who had – through the Real Estate Business Owners of SA (Rebosa) – taken the regulatory body to court in an urgent application to be able to work legally and earn an income.

Three years and three months after the Steinhoff share price collapsed, following the disclosure of widespread ‘financial irregularities’, disgraced former CEO Markus Jooste might be about to face his first criminal charge, says a Moneyweb report.

A planned class action involving as many as 20 000 Uber drivers in SA may lead to changes for the gig economy as a whole beyond e-hailing, law firm Webber Wentzel says.

International Relations & Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor has conceded the botched R118m New York project, in which government paid for land that did not exist, is a national embarrassment.

The Real Estate Business Owners of SA (Rebosa) is taking the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) to court over failing to issue operating licences on time.

Tavern and shebeen owners have called for the government to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol in seven days or risk collapsing the sector.

The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) says foreign-exchange controls will soon apply to crypto-currencies such as bitcoin, while all crypto asset service providers will need to apply for a special licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

Iqbal Survé, chair of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and executive chair of Independent Media, says he has written to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance to request meetings about ongoing disputes with the state-owned asset management company, notes Fin24.

Provisional liquidators appointed to seize control of failed SA Bitcoin trader Mirror Trading International (MTI) are looking to widen the scope of their inquiry. They are wanting to extend their powers to include the right to call witnesses to an insolvency inquiry, appoint investigators and solicit information from banks, said Herman Bester, one of four interim supervisors appointed to begin work on the matter, according to a Bloomberg report on the Moneyweb site.

Former Steinhoff boss Markus Jooste has lodged an appeal against the fine of R161m imposed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for insider trading, Die Burger reports.

SA Breweries (SAB) is to challenge the constitutionality of the blanket ban on alcohol sales, which was re-introduced late in December in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Insurance group Santam says it has started the process of assessing claims related to contingent business interruptions due to Covid-19, including those previously rejected in the months after the national lockdown commenced in March.