Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act No. 99 of 1995 (“the Labour Relations Act”) provides that if a transfer of a business takes place - the new employer is automatically substituted in the place of the old employer in respect of all contracts of employment in existence immediately before the date of transfer; all [...]
A warning regarding charging interest on deferred payments – the recent SCA judgment in Vesagie NO & others v Erwee NO & another (734/2013) [2014] ZASCA 121 (19 September 2014) confirms that the sale contract will be void ab initio if the seller is not a registered credit provider in terms of the National Credit [...]
Pieter van der Merwe attended the Globalaw European meeting in Madrid Spain. earlier in March. His report was that it is evident from the discussions with colleagues within the group that it seems that the global economy improving. Further many European based businesses are exploring migrating into emerging and new markets which will be promising [...]
Aside from various types of legal documents where signature of the parties is required by law (such as an agreement to dispose of a real right in land as contemplated in the Alienation of Land Act, 1981) there is a misconception in commerce that an ordinary agreement that is documented in writing must always be [...]
According to South African law there are only three grounds for the fair dismissal of an employee, namely the conduct of the employee, the capacity of the employee and the operational requirements of the employer's business. 1.Conduct of the employee In order for the dismissal to be regarded as fair: The employee must have contravened [...]
English stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard once said “No one in the universe has read the terms and conditions”. He was of course referring to the terms and conditions of iTunes which we all blindly accept in the “ordinary course of our social business”. He went on further to say “anything could be in the terms [...]
There is something magical about putting commercial transactions together and implementing them. It feeds into the primary instinct of people to constantly strive for growth and advancement. Unfortunately, the outcome is not always win-win and sometimes one is faced with a win-lose situation. Before I provide my view on M&A activity, it is important to [...]
There are likely few ‘high stakes’ business men and women and (hopefully) fewer commercial attorneys who won’t be familiar with an arbitration clause. Typically, such a clause will oblige the parties to an agreement to refer any dispute arising from the agreement, to be determined by an arbitration tribunal in accordance with certain rules which [...]
1. Introduction The doctrine of the corporate veil suggests that the legal personality of a company and the personalities of its shareholders and directors are separated. The corporate veil is regarded as the general principle in terms of a company’s liability. It is clear that legal personality of a company can be disregarded in certain [...]
An agreement that is unenforceable from the moment it is created is void ab initio (or void from the outset). Examples would be that the contract did not possess any one of the essentialia of a valid contract as at the time of conclusion and therefore a contract could never have been created. The following are requirements [...]