An attempt to stop NUMSA from calling a strike because it had not held a secret ballot failed. In the matters between NUMSA and Mahle Behr and NUMSA and Foskor with AMCU as amicus curiae the Labour Appeal Court had to determine whether in the absence of compliance with the transitional provisions of the Labour Relations Amendment Act 2018 (LRAA) a registered union may be interdicted from striking, without having conducted a secret ballot. The…

On 17 June 2020 the Constitutional Court handed down a landmark judgment which pronounced on a child’s own right to take part in due process or hearings concerning the termination of the contract between independent schools and their parents. The judgment concerns the constitutionality of a decision by an independent school to expel two scholars without giving them a hearing. The applicants were the parents of two children who attended the independent school. Identical contracts…

Given many entities’ proactive compliance with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act despite it not being enforceable, companies should be considering the impact of POPI (or data privacy laws with wide reach) when they carry out due diligence investigations. Depending on the nature of the transaction, the due diligence process can involve the sharing of large volumes of personal information with a prospective buyer. To the extent that a target company shares…

During a virtual meeting held on 10 June 2020, Cabinet approved the Financial Sector Laws Amendment Bill of 2020, for submission to Parliament. In the first step to formalising a resolution process for financially distressed banks, the Bill proposes to designate the SARB as the Resolution Authority, and enhances the SARB’s regulatory tools for discharging its statutory mandate of ensuring stability of the financial system. The Bill introduces South Africa’s first comprehensive deposit insurance scheme…

In April 2020 the UK Supreme Court had reason to discuss the difference between ‘significant’ and ‘substantial’ in the context of what is a ‘significant reduction in life expectancy’. The court said that ‘like the skin of a chameleon, the adjective takes a different colour so as to suit a different context’. The word ‘significant’ often means something less than the word ‘substantial’. But in context it can mean ‘substantial’. The court gave an example…

When a fire and other perils policy came up for renewal on 24 August 2018, the insurer and the insured’s broker exchanged emails regarding renewal terms and hold-covered arrangements. The Victoria Supreme Court in Australia found that cover had not been renewed nor extended because the insured had not unequivocally accepted the renewal terms nor reacted to the hold-covered offer. The insured was therefore not covered for a fire which occurred (as fate so often…

An external company is not a company as defined in the Companies Act, and it cannot therefore have prescribed officers with the obligations and liabilities imposed by the Act. Prescribed officers are employees or other persons who, although they are not directors, exercise executive control over a significant part of a company’s business or participate materially in decision-making. Prescribed officers are required to act with the same level of care, skill and diligence and attract…