Practice

 

News:

• Inefficiency and the delay that it brings is endemic to our country. This has spilt over into our court administration. Public Works is behind in its maintenance which, coupled with water and power interruptions and lack of money and the non-employment of sufficient judicial staff, has resulted in substantial case backlogs and congestion, which have, in the case of the Pretoria High Court, resulted in trial dates to be available only in five years. This ‘challenge’ led to the Gauteng High Court issuing a proposal for mandatory mediation as prerequisite for trial dates. The intent is to speed up settlement (it is said that 85% of cases are settled on the morning of the trial date!) and so take pressure off the justice system. We await comments from the profession, and a directive from the High Court.
• A VAT increase is on the cards from 1 May this year. SARS has already published an update but its use is quite limited. The primary issue here is from when VAT will apply in property transactions: practically speaking FAQ 14, in the link below applies, which says that the time of supply will be the date of registration of the transaction in the Deeds Office: https://www.sars.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/Ops/Guides/Legal-Pub-Guide-FAQs-VAT-05-FAQs-VAT-Increase-in-the-VAT-Rate-from-1-May-2025.pdf
• Is a fixed-fee structure feasible in an attorney’s practice? Take a look: https://www.attorneyatwork.com/how-to-move-to-a-fully-fixed-price-legal-services-model/
• The LPC has published a list of convicted practitioner defaulters – I confess to being surprised at how few they were over the period 2018 to date: https://www.fidfund.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/LPFF-Convicted-Defaulters.pdf
• The Johannesburg and Pretoria Masters will henceforth only accept new trusts for registration via the Trust Online Registration System.
• Practitioners should be aware that the Deeds Office will accept electronically issued newspaper advertisements – RCR 9/2019, ex West.

 

Hard news:

• The Mareva injunction: can one, in South Africa, obtain an interdict preventing a debtor from dissipating assets? https://www.derebus.org.za/preventing-the-hiding-of-assets-by-debtors-the-mareva-injunction-examined/
• When a business is transferred as a going concern in terms of section 197 of the LRA, the retirement age agreed with the previous employer, will transfer and apply to the new employer: https://bowmanslaw.com/insights/south-africa-retirement-following-a-section-197-transfer-which-age-applies/
• More on Labour: does remuneration due by an employer to an employee, prescribe? Yes, but… https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/publications/2025/Practice/Employment-Law/employment-alert-24-march-2025-reinstatement-does-arrear-remuneration-prescribe
• I had, previously, reported on the issue of reviving a lapsed contract; in-depth: https://insightplus.bakermckenzie.com/bm/mergers-acquisitions_5/south-africa-once-lapsed-always-lapsed-the-scas-clarification-on-reviving-suspensive-conditions
• Voluntary surrender: May an applicant disclose only so much of its asset to enable it to achieve the minimum dividend threshold representing an advantage to creditors? https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2025/286.html
• Restraints of trade, to protect trade interests, are common: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2025/286.html

 

Conveyancing:

• Conveyancers regularly deal with trusts and should have told those served by trusts about the compulsory noting of beneficial ownership. The writer of this article argues that this Fica requirement is irrational: https://www.derebus.org.za/examining-the-impact-of-beneficial-ownership-requirements-for-trusts-in-south-africa/
• Conveyancers often do transfers from one spouse to another on divorce. We had assumed that the date of the transaction, for transfer duty purposes (exempt but one still needs to lodge the exemption),is the date of divorce. A problem was created when the Chief Registrar, in her infinite wisdom and sagacity, decided that if an addendum to such a contract was signed, the date of the addendum would serve as the date of acquisition: https://www.phinc.co.za/OurInsights/ArticleDetail.aspx?Title=-When-does-the-Property-Transfer-clock-start-in-a-divorce
• A beginner’s guide to praedial servitudes: https://caf.co.za/beginners-guide-to-praedial-servitudes/
• If a purchaser pays the purchase price to a conveyancer, nominated by the seller, and that conveyancer absconds with the money; is the purchaser entitled to transfer the property?

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2025/347.html

• The much-vaunted system was to be introduced yesterday (or last week on the 1st). This has caused much uncertainty in the conveyancing fraternity. Some of the many issues are:
• The requirement that a form LLL is to be lodged with every transaction was still unclear at the time of writing – i.e. may one lodge a scan or must the form be in original; will a failure to lodge this form be a rejection or counter-query?
• The requirement that lodgement costs be paid upfront, has been addressed by the Chief Registrar – in essence, don’t worry about this until August – ask me for the circular content, as distributed by STBB.
• I have a media statement from the DLRRD on the implementation of the eDRS system but which says little. Conveyancers had been invited to join a pilot project with the intent to see whether the system works, deliver feedback and so on. I subscribed, but confess to scepticism: at present access to Deeds Office records is intermittent and we are quite often supplied with dated information. For such a system to work properly, the information held needs to be absolutely accurate.
• I have been copied into a note that the Chief Registrar of Deeds may be exceeding her powers in implementing the current eDRS system.
• If you have not yet received Directive 5 on the eDRS operation (from the LPC nogal), ask me for a copy.
• I was copied into a response by the KZN Legal Practitioners Association to a letter directed at the Competition Commission regarding high conveyancing fees and the right of the Seller to appoint the conveyancer, whilst the purchaser pays the costs. Ask me for a copy of this response. If this complaint proves successful it would have a dramatic impact on how our profession deals with conveyancing.

 

Property

News:

• News depicting trends in property prices and sales have been scarce. Localised reports on developments are:
• Gauteng, in pure numbers, is the province to which most foreigners migrate – on the figures probably twice as many as in the Western Cape;
• George is still the subject of massive demand for property from affluent buyers;
• estate living has become de rigueur when it comes to security, amenities and lifestyle;
• investors are continuing to buy-to-rent in the Western Cape; think stability;
• Bloomberg reported that our government, in partnership with the World Bank, has launched a 55bn initiative to reverse the decline in services and infrastructure in eight of our biggest cities. Of this sum, R20bn will be borrowed from the World Bank. I, again, confess to scepticism, when considering whether the balance will be forthcoming from Government, given its current impecuniousity.
• Tshwane is (also) broke. A potential source of income has been ignored by it in that there are 19 illegal developments within its jurisdiction which it has failed to tackle.
• Pam Golding suffered a data breach about a month ago and MyBroadBand has reported quite negatively on that entity’s handling of the situation. ‘Nuff said.
• Good news: the financial intermediation (think bonds) and real estate industry has had the highest net profit margin of South African industry since 2010: https://codera.co.za/performance-indicators-for-sa-industries/

Legal stuff:

• You build a lapa on your exclusive use area in a sectional scheme – is this an extension of your section or the improvement of the EUA: https://www.paddocks.co.za/paddocks-press-newsletter/section-extension-or-eua-improvement/

 

Comment

 

The fallout from our government’s policies and support of those not friendly to the USA and Mr Trump’s overenthusiasm has led to the Rand’s worst level in history against the British pound and other unpleasant financial news. Politicians speak blithely of job creation, but the fact is that starting a new business in South Africa is not easy, a difficulty easily ignored by politicians if that difficulty is justified from a policy perspective:

 

Lighten up (on starting a business)

• Entrepreneurs, the only people who work 80 hour weeks to avoid working 40 hour weeks.
• The closest people come to this perfection, are on an employment application.

 

 

 

 

Written by: Daan Steenkamp
https://www.daansteenkampattorneys.co.za/ 

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