Gentle reader
I have not published for some six weeks, owing to having relocated to Pretoria; some of the news in this publication may therefore be older than you might expect.
Daan
Practice
News
- Legal practitioners are required to submit their FIC submissions before 31 July this year.
- Justice (acting) Ngcukaitobi was appointed to the Constitutional Court by Ramaphosa – the first black Advocate to be appointed directly from the Bar.
- RAF:
- This legislative and management disaster will probably require another financial bailout from the state…
- The SCA has ruled that an illegal foreigner may claim road accident benefits.
- DignitySA has launched a landmark constitutional challenge to legalise assisted dying. Judging by reports, the issue is deeply polarised and ethically irresolvable. Speaking for myself, I am the custodian of my body and as long as I am doing no harm to anyone else, I cannot see why, if I have a good reason, I cannot be assisted in passing away.
- Another challenge kicked off in the ConCourt last week; a challenge to the NHI brought by the Western Cape Premier and medical aid schemes.
- BEE:
- The proposed General Public Procurement Regulations, which will force entities that wish to do business with the state to have a larger percentage of the procurement from majority black-owned businesses, has drawn much criticism. The fact is that BEE is a cost to business – statistics are being garnered to determine this cost, and I suspect that this will prove to be enormous. The question, of course, is whether this cost is objectively justified by the result.
- Three of our largest legal practices have taken on the State on the B-BBEE codes for the legal sector – the case was due to have started last week Monday but was delayed in on-the-court-steps negotiations which led to nothing. The fact is that growing smaller businesses are dramatically affected by the BEE requirements set for their relevant industries, once turnover exceeds R10m. An interesting metaphor was allegedly – I did not read this – used by the advocate acting for the state – is that the black legal professional is likened to someone’s whose car has been stolen being offered a lift by the thief; whichever way you look at this – eina!
- AI: a USA court ruled that a defendant’s communication with an AI chat bot was not protected by privilege. Take a look: https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/publications/2026/South-Africa/Dispute-Resolution/combined-dispute-resolution-and-knowledge-management-alert-21-april-chatting-away-your-protection-are-you-waiving-legal-privilege-when-you-use-ai
- West made the national conveyancing exam pass rates available last week and the pass percentages are dismal. If this interests you, ask me for a copy. But, whilst on this topic, another scandal emerged on Saturday – an LPC administrator was caught tampering with the May 2024 admission exam results; Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
- The new threshold for compulsory competition commission notification are as follows: old merger threshold followed by new: intermediate R100m, now R200m; large R190m, nowR6.6bn. Filing fees are respectively 220k and R735k.
- Just (a) dog; on a much lighter note, a therapy dog was allowed to accompany a child giving evidence in the Cape Town High Court, in order to assist that child by reducing stress.
Hard news
- GAAR essentials are beyond the ken of most of us; these are anti-avoidance rules in the Income Tax Act. For the cognoscenti only: https://bowmanslaw.com/insights/south-africa-constitutional-court-delivers-first-interpretation-of-gaar/
- A recent High Court decision that non-compete clauses are valid, unless unreasonable and contrary to public policy, was reported upon – not news, but still: https://iol.co.za/business/jobs/2026-04-29-high-court-ruling-in-adt-case-clarifies-restraint-of-trade/
- Where an employer establishes that losses occurred whilst goods or cash were in the custody of employees, those employees bear the burden of providing a reasonable explanation for the shortages, and failure to do so may result in dismissal: www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/export/sites/cdh/news/publications/2026/South-Africa/Employment-Law/Downloads/Employment-Law-Alert-29-April-2026.pdf
- Knowledge of the outcome of questions of law is not required for the commencement of prescription: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2026/51.html
- Sequestration as a debt collection tool: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2026/317.html
- A colleague practicing without a Fidelity fund certificate et cetera (I cannot believe this gentleman sought to uplift his suspension): https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2026/321.html
- ECT and the renewal of leases: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2026/374.html
- West had made available the conveyancing exam results for the first sitting this year and they are better than those of the previous year but still hardly encouraging; if you want a copy I can forward you his summary.
Conveyancing
- Owning property is a safe investment, right? A recent Moneyweb report held that our property registration system is ’absolutely rife with fraud’ . Apparently, most of this happens with low-value transactions.
- Disproportionate legal costs in recovering levies could result in the refusal of an order by a court: https://iol.co.za/business/advice/2026-04-10-johannesburg-court-ruling-reshapes-sectional-title-levy-recovery-practices/
- A complex case dealing with short-term letting in a sectional scheme was referred to me by West is interesting – https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2025/995.pdf
- A member of a body corporate lent money to that body corporate which was mismanaged and could not repay; a mess followed: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2026/405.html
Property
Trends
- The rosy picture of property value growth, painted by those who punt property, is probably exaggerated. Having said that, yes, investment in property is looking better than it had for some time. Examples of ‘growth’ that are punted are Waterfall City, rampant demand in Cape Town’s City Bowl and Spear REIT’s intended development. The downsides to value growth are in-office work shifting to hybrid models and fuel cost dampening office rentals and sales.
- Lightstone says that the gap between high and low value homes is widening and that there is a shrinkage of property sale volumes, which includes a sharp decline in the number of younger buyers. So, much of a mixed bag.
- A graph by Codera shows a dramatic drop in the National Department spending, which will inevitably impact on incomes and eventually property values: https://codera.co.za/infrastructure-spending-in-sa-over-time/
- A positive note, sounded by (the ever optimistic) Roelof Botha, is that marginally higher economic growth enhanced investor confidence and (now questionably) potentially lower interest rates, have resulted in a decline in the average deposit for a home purchase.
- A somewhat hoary debate is whether to rent or buy – looking at the decline in younger buyers, there is something to be said for not buying into a property investment immediately: https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/04/08/why-renting-could-be-smarter-than-buying-property-right-now
- Another interesting graph from Codera shows the net profit margin for, amongst others, real estate services: https://codera.co.za/wages-and-profits-by-industry-in-sa/ The real estate business is hugely profitable.
News
- The Tshwane municipality has been lambasted by the High Court for an egregious and contemptible application to scrap a default judgement against it for damages to three companies going to the municipal negligence in failing to comply with its statutory duties. Not covering itself in glory!
- Buying property overseas, in order to secure residency, is not new – what is new is that Dubai has scrapped the minimum value of such an investment required (Published by AGBI). The difficulty, of course, is whether having such citizenship is desirable?
- FNB has launched what it calls a market-first home loan solution which allows qualifying graduates and young professionals to pay interest only at a competitive fixed rate for the first two years.
Legal stuff
- The Western Cape High Court has declared the City of Cape Town’s fixed tariff structure for services unlawful and invalid. This was done on the basis that the charges were tied to property values rather than actual usage. The application leading to this was brought by Sapoa – attaboy!
- The road to hell is paved with good intentions: conflict-of-interest in sectional title schemes was the topic raised in a Daily Investor article lately – yes, a trustee may be employed by the Body corporate, but such an appointment will be invalid unless the trustee discloses his interest prior to such a decision being taken.
- An interesting article on the proposed PIE Act bears reading; especially the criminalisation of those who incite unlawful occupation and so on: https://stbb.co.za/closing-the-loopholes-why-proposed-pie-act-amendments-strengthen-property-rights-in-south-africa/
Objectively the proposed legislation or target the syndicates behind land invasions and impose tougher penalties for those involved in organised land invasions.
- Of late the production of building plans for buildings on a property has become more prevalent when buying; this is, in my opinion, owing to the fact that municipalities’ records are not reliable and that municipalities do not check constructions as of yore. Are such plans necessary for sale: https://stbb.co.za/all-about-property-property-sales-and-building-plans-when-is-a-seller-legally-obligated-to-provide-approved-plans/
- A discussion on the application of VAT and transfer duty is old hat but useful: https://madeleyn.co.za/2026/04/13/the-developers-handshake-when-buying-a-new-property-changes-your-tax-bill/
Lighten up
What’s wrong with lawyer jokes? Lawyers don’t think they’re funny and other people don’t think they’re jokes.
Lawyer’s creed: A man is innocent until he has been proven broke.
How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many can you afford?
Contributed by:
Daan Steenkamp Attorneys
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