Tag: public interest

Communal property associations reform aims to address longstanding governance challenges and enhance the effective management of community-owned land. The Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 allowed individuals and communities to claim rights to dispossessed land. This dispossession occurred due to past racially discriminatory laws or practices.

Consumer benefits in mergers should be the central consideration when evaluating whether a merger enhances or harms the market for consumers. The Competition Tribunal recently blocked a merger between Maziv and Vodacom, two major players in South Africa's telecommunications sector.

There is a complex relationship between privacy and freedom of expression. Both rights are enshrined in the South African Constitution and are essential to a democratic society. The right to privacy safeguards personal autonomy by protecting individuals from undue intrusions into their private lives. Freedom of expression, on the other hand, promotes open debate and the sharing of information, which are vital for democracy.

A landmark high court ruling found that business rescue practitioners can't "have their cake and eat it too". The case involving sugar giant Tongaat Hulett, balances the principles of corporate rescue with the broader societal imperatives of industry regulation.

During Parliamentary debates on amendments to the Companies Act in 2023, it was noted that the biggest opposition to the amendments related to the disclosure of remuneration. With the President signing the Companies Amendment Act on the 26th of July 2024, debates on the new remuneration requirements will resurface.

The Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) is an empowering piece of legislation and allows that secretes cannot be hidden in the shadows. The matter of The Health Justice Initiative vs The Minister of Health provides insight from a regulatory point of view, not only since it has consequences for the privacy and information regime but also the procurement regime.

The South African Competition Commission has published its final revised Public Interest Guidelines relating to merger control. The guidelines serve to clarify the commission’s stance on public interest factors as set out in the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (as amended).

South Africa has to ramp up its conservation efforts, including in the protection of threatened and endangered species, in order to meet its international commitments by 2030 as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Acknowledging the urgency of taking action in this regard, the South African government recently rolled out a ground breaking tax incentive for the conservation of threatened species.

All taxpayers should arrange their tax affairs to obtain the best advantage and to pay the least amount of tax. This is a right every taxpayer possesses, and well entrenched in South African and international tax law. However, this planning must be done within the constraints of what the law allows.

South Africa is facing an extraordinary ‘polycrisis’. The dimensions of this crisis include an energy collapse; a failing rail network; weak education outcomes; an interrupted water supply; and the effects of decades of endemic corruption that have brought much of government to a halt.