Don Quijote

Economy – Warren Buffet has likened Bitcion to rat poison squared. One buys Bitcoin in the expectation that a rising price will be created as more buyers would want to buy the same item and pay more. Interestingly this was said just prior to reports of a plunge (a drop, yes but hardly that) in crypto currencies’ price.

 


Business

From 1 July reporting entities will be expected to submit their annual financial statements to CIPC via XBRL. The following link will explain what this is   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBRL

Mahindra will soon start assembling a range of vehicles in South Africa, but probably in the  Dube Trade Port, just north of Durban. Good news

Shrewd move: Curro needs to keep its classes full. If not full, what can one do? Curro lends money/gives credit to school. If only half of those thus schooling pay, Curro still scores as the overheads are paid for anyway and as a bonus it gets interest on the loan.


Property

The land reform/expropriation debate rages on. Fuelled by populism with an overarching intent to govern, inflammatory statements are made with scant regard to the underlying issues. To meet the expectations thus generated by politicians would be virtually impossible and can only lead to tears. Whilst not PC to think thus, I confess that I have doubts whether a democracy can properly function in a disparate society; democracy was not designed for societies such ours. The difficulty with this tack is that it negates what is become acceptable as a fundamental right, i.e. the right of each, irrespective of the insight, to decide who governs him. Allowing all to thus decide is at once the strength of democracy and its weakness.

I have expressed agreement with an opinion by another that the land need of the poor is, not for farms, but for urban properties. Such developments have been the preserve of private developers with the state involving itself in primarily low-cost housing. If the state were to expropriate urban land, who would bear the cost of the development, given that the land acquisition and cost is probably by far the least expensive or onerous obligation when developing? Once the state expropriate it becomes a developer, a role to which it is particularly unsuited. 

FNB reported that financial stress in the residential property market has declined significantly (sales owing to financial pressure declined from 14.2% in the 4th qaurter of last year to 12.1% in the 1st quarter of this year). This improvement is reflected in Ooba reporting the highest home loan approval rate in 10 years. One of the factors, weighing in on this report, is that the average deposit for firstt-time buyers, as a percentage of the purchase price, is decreasing.

What happens when you do not get your full contracted for bond within the period stipulated, but pay in the difference to the conveyancer? In the case below the contract between the parties provided that, if the full bond was not obtained, that contract would lapse. Has a contract, pragmatically speaking, been complied with or may it be cancelled for want of proper performance, if the purchaser provides for the full purchase price but not in the format agreed upon? The court argued that a suspensive condition of this nature was in favour of the purchaser and he could waive this, which was done via the tender of guarantees plus cash, see ¶ 30. In other words, a purchaser may elect to take lower bond and give more cash as the condition of obtaining the bond is in his favour and may thus be done away with at least partially.

http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAKZDHC/2018/9.html


Practice

A change made by the Rules Board, provides in 46 A of the Uniform Rules of Court, that a court may set a reserve price for properties to be sold in execution of a debt judgement. This, so it is said, should be used by litigants acting on behalf of the trustees of home owners associations: it is said that by a court setting a reserve price, a bondholder bank is precluded from blocking a sale on account of holding a bond over the property, as the bank will now have to accept the set price. I confess not to be convinced that this will necessarily be that effective. The following case illustrates the problem; in this a body corporate attempted to sequestrate a non-paying member. Take a look.

http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2017/28.html

Be careful of what you post on HelloPeter & social media.

http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAKZDHC/2018/7.html

In the case below, a claimant of salary was able to wind up a non-paying company. This is unusual as our courts don’t generally favour liquidation as a method of debt collection.

http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAKZDHC/2018/5.html

An interesting recent local case deals with the duties of a trustee who was appointed to liquidate and divide the estate of parties married in community of property on their divorce. The judge states that it is the responsibility of such a trustee to make a contribution towards the costs of a matrimonial suit by the parties as they would be prejudiced if this were not done.. What sets this case aside is the conduct of the attorney appointed in this particular matter, which led to the judge awarding costs de bonis propriis against her. The case is not yet available on SAFLII but I will make it available to you should you ask me for acopy

LA v EA


Comment

Cuddle me, kill me. This is the title of a book telling the true story of animals… and, more specifically, canned lions. It is interesting to note that one would cuddle a lamb yet eat it later with no social reprobation. Do this to a lion, which is worth infinitely more than a lamb, and you would find yourself in seriously hot water. 

“The struggle between lust of dominion, pride of race (and) mercantile avarice… on the one hand and true self-regard, humanity, justice to inferiors, sympathy on the other, goes on like the fight between the angel and the devil… for the soul of man.”

This was the content of a letter of encouragement written by Sir Thomas Farrar to the then liberal viceroy in India, Ilbert, when the latter was faced with the White Mutiny, a reaction by the British traders in India, to a bill in which was to introduce true equality between English and Indian magistrates. The traders formed the British backbone of that country; India was an enormous source of wealth for such traders, who consequently had enormous influence in Whitehall. The vituperation and invective that the attempt to introduce equality into the civil service, elicited from the Anglo-Indians (the wit ouks) and what followed, gave birth to Indian national consciousness and the Indian National Congress. Led by the anglicised elite, such as Nehru, that entity was instrumental in ripping from the British Crown, the indispensable jewel that was India.

What interested me in the history above is the opportunity to make comparisons with South Africa, now and then. 

The British employed only about a thousand Civil Servants to rule 400 million Indians. In Africa, spread over a dozen colonies with a population of some 43 million, these numbered 1200. These were not of the ilk we know today, competition for positions was fierce and the entrance examination which led to selection, is said to have been the toughest in history.

Hence, British Civil Servants in those days  had borshare. Compare this to what we have in South Africa today. Whilst I have ceased being an anglophile, one has to acknowledge that the civil servants that the Ingelse of yore deployed, were simply in another class to those whom we today classify as such.

On a somewhat more sensitive note was an article run by the Times: would you, a white, keep your child in a school which becomes black, provided that the quality of education stays the same? The writer proposed that in such situations, most often, the educators remain the same and standards should, on the whole, remain constant. The writer proposes that “white flight” is driven by association: parents associate quality with white teachers but also with a majority of white pupils. The more white children, the more assured the parents are that the quality of the educational experience will be good. Interestingly this presumption applies amongst Indian and coloured parents also. The conclusion reached is that parents also choose schools based on this presumption and as a way of physically distancing themselves from people whom they perceive to be of lower social status: the poor.

(OK , I’m probably just another pinko lost in time)


Lighten up

Scent of a woman.. a cantankerous, blind alcoholic played by Al Pacino: he might not have been able to see but he could smell. Impressive looking research on the “The ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?” finds that men tip lap dancers 30% more when they ovulate: pheromones, the downfall of many a man…. 

Now this is useful science!

“The taxpayer – that someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.” Ronald Reagan

Civil Service Rowing Team

Contributed by:
Daan Steenkamp Attorneys

14th May 2018

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