Legal

The land reform debate over the last few years in South Africa can at best be described as controversial, political and mostly emotional, more specifically so in the context of expropriation. From the outset, it should be noted that the current Expropriation Act, 1975 (the 1975 Act) is completely outdated and predates the Constitution and the South African expropriation laws were in dire need of being overhauled.

While there has been much anger and frustration over South Africa’s slow response in procuring and administering COVID-19 vaccines, it remains the government’s responsibility to protect its citizens from this pandemic, while upholding the rights of all South Africans enshrined by our constitution.

The President, on 15 January 2021, assented to the Taxation Laws Amendment Act No. 23 of 2020 (TLAA), which was subsequently promulgated on 20 January 2021. Despite the blow back last year on the proposed amendment to the withdrawal of retirement funding in SA based on emigration, this amendment has now been signed into law and will become effective on 1 March 2021.

Regulators are no longer afraid to protect peoples’ rights to privacy against tech giants. In recent years, we have seen the likes of Google and Facebook receive large amounts of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a highly volatile and uncertain environment for businesses resulting in a litany of new or heightened risks for directors and officers (D&O) as well as exacerbating the situation in an already strained D&O insurance market.

South African competition law is highly regarded internationally. In 2018, the Global Competition Review (GCR) ranked the Competition Commission as the best regulator globally. With such praise, one would expect the economy to be the most competitive in the world. This is not the case. Instead, South Africa ranks very poorly in the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World report, which measures the freedom of economies globally with standards like regulatory burden, property rights protection, intervention and the general ease of opening and doing business in a country.

The Broadcasting Electronic Media and Allied Workers' Union (BEMAWU) recently launched an urgent application in the Labour Court interdicting the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SOC) Ltd (SABC) from proceeding with retrenchment processes and forcing the SABC to adhere to fair consultation processes [BEMAWU & Others v SABC & Others, in the Labour Court of South Africa, Johannesburg, Case Number J1199/20]. 

A common occurrence in the employment relationship is for an employee to resign in the face of disciplinary action by an employer, and South African courts have previously accepted that as long as an employee resigns with immediate effect, the employer has no power to compel the former employer to go through any disciplinary process.  

On 10 December 2020, the Competition Commission issued the final guidelines for competition in the South African Automotive Aftermarket (Automotive Guidelines). The Automotive Guidelines are forward thinking as the measures proposed therein apply not only to internal combustion engines (ICE) but also to electric vehicles (EV's) and to propulsion by other means (i.e. hybrid).

With only a few weeks till the Brexit transition and having initiated discussions years ago, UK ministers are considering formally doing away with non-compete clauses sooner rather than later. Essentially, removing non-compete clauses allows employees to start their own businesses without having to sit out a waiting period.