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 13 FEBRUARY 2012 THE END IS NIGH Dear Friends This will be the last Business Bytes for a month as I will be overseas. Regards Daan Steenkamp ECONOMICS Incubators – this is the new buzz-word with which Minister Rob Davies has returned from Brazil. The intent is to set up 250 incubators countrywide and to thus encourage the growth of SMME's. This will address the fragmentation of Government policy on the growth of SMME's and, if the Government pays their accounts on time, then these concerns will flourish. Need I say more … Last week State Owned Enterprises were mooted as a new form of vehicle for development by the State. It has become clear to me that I will not understand the logic behind this proposal. The Minister says these are difficult to run as there is tension between commercial considerations and Government objectives. The State, she says, does not have the expertise to run these – yet she recommends these vehicles. What escapes me is this: If these are going to be State funded (are they?) and run, why not just run them as State services? Standard Bank predicts a period of "light stagflation". Hold thumbs… The Gauteng economy is said to be in a better state than a year ago. The World Bank sees, in Africa, the sign of economic growth that was present in Latin America ten years ago. BUSINESS An argument; flighted in Business Day, proposes that Petro SA and SASOL be taxed at a higher rate, given that they were capitalised with public money. SA Business schools are said to be less effective than our overseas counterparts, primarily because they teach lower levels of people management skills. Some one million CC's were deregistered by CIPC for failing to file their annual returns. To sue such a corporation, one needs to first approach the court to restore its registration. Do check on the registration of a recalcitrant payer company. PROPERTY Generally the price of small house is less affected by recessionary tendencies. This January the yoy price for small houses was 12.8 % lower than last January. (Absa) The (State owned) National Housing Finance Corporation intends to provide Banks with Mortgage Default Insurance by end March. It intends to become profit driven (hence the SOE status)…and the State will capitalise it to the tune of R150 million. It and the Banks will share the risks, but in which ratio, is yet to be determined. Somehow I cannot see my banker being wild with anticipation… Residential developers are reportedly still having difficulty in funding developments. Pam Golding, however, says that developers are re-entering the market, albeit cautiously. CASES Voidable Preferences If a moneylender is liquidated, re-payments by it to a financier made within six months of its insolvency may be voided unless they were made "in the ordinary course of its business". So, what are payments made (by a moneylender) in the ordinary course of its business? In this case the loans were illegal and it was thus argued that they could have not been repaid "in the ordinary course of business". The repayments were found to be so by the court as, despite their being tainted, the repayments were made as part of its business. Gazit [2012] JOL 28319 (KZD) Suspensive Sale A sale of land was subject to a suspensive condition that the purchaser obtains an 80% bond. The purchaser did not apply for the bond. The purchaser says that he elected to proceed with the transfer within the time allowed to obtain finance. The seller pleaded that the contract had lapsed owing to non-fulfilment of the condition. The court decided that if such a condition was waived within the period of its suspension, then such a waiver would be valid. Park 2000 [2012] JOL 28327 (SCA) Minor Theft A long-serving breadwinner steals liquid soap worth R17. She is dismissed. Fair? No! Senlishegeng [2012] JOL 28303 (SALGBC) Constructive Dismissal Your employee faces dismissal for poor performance. Rather than face the enquiry, he resigns and then goes to the CCMA on the grounds of you making his continued employment intolerable (Clever chap; this, on the face of it, is the softer option). Hickman [2012] JOL 28314 (LC) Sexual Harassment Often an employee, sexually harassed by a superior, is flattered and only complains after the passage of some time. The commissioner initially found that the victim enjoyed such advances. It was held that the victim's failure to report did not exonerate the defendant. This is a case one should read. Gaga [2012] JOL 28325 (LAC) Divorce & dealings with shared property They divorce, acrimoniously. He undertakes to give her half of his property. She asks that he undertakes not to deal with the properties pending the divorce. He refuses. She asks for an interdict prevailing him from so doing based on his refusal. Decided that this application, in the absence of a clear right to the property, must fail. I suspect that one also needs more than the conclusion drawn from the refusal to conclude that nefarious intent is present. Marais [2012] 28338 (GSJ) WEIRD & WONDEFUL Zimbabwean mermaids, it is said, is chasing repair workers away from water reservoirs. They appointed white guys – same result. There's a job going for, ahem, a brave chap? "The basic lesson we have learned is that of democratic centralisation … we are guilty of thinking." - Malema On Germanophiles (and the unification of Germany): "They are attempting to overturn an order that offends their pride and to replace all governments of the country by a single authority … The unity of the German fatherland is their slogan, their faith and their religion, they are ardent to the point of fanaticism … who can calculate the consequences if the masses of Germany were to combine into a single whole and turn aggressive?" (Addressed to Louis XVIII) Title in a Mercury article: "The rise and rise of a slow sex." LIGHTEN UP Tail Piece A Tourist asks an American Indian his wife's name. "She called Five Horses." "That's an unusual name. What does it mean?" "It old traditional Indian Name. It mean: Nag, nag, nag, nag, nag!" "An Alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do." Dylan Thomas |
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| CONTRIBUTORS: | D J Steenkamp, Attorney |
| CONTACT TMJ: | Pietermaritzburg: +27 33 341 9100, tmj@tmj.co.za Durban: +27 31 566 2207, dbn@tmj.co.za |
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