Articles

COVID-19 SOUTH AFRICAN LOCKDOWN: SUMMARY OF REGULATIONS

As the impending 21-day lockdown approaches, new regulations were published on 25 March 2020 in terms of section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act No. 57 of 2002 (“the Act”), to supplement the existing regulations published on 18 March 2020 in terms of the same Act and to cater specifically for the conditions of lockdown…

WORKPLACE MEASURES TO DEAL WITH CORONAVIRUS

GENERAL REMARKS On 15 March 2020, the South African government declared a national state of disaster and implemented various measures designed to contain and minimise the spread of the virus. None of these measures directly affect the workplace, as there is an obvious necessity to keep the economy going as far as possible, but the…

EXPATRIATE TAX – WILL IT AFFECT ME?

Many South African expatriates, i.e. South Africans living and working abroad, or planning to will presumably be anxious to know whether the “expatriate tax” which refers to the amended section 10(1)(o) of the Income Tax Act, will apply to them when it comes into effect from 1 March 2020 and in respect of years of…

END OF THE FREE RIDE FOR DEFAULTING TENANTS

INTRODUCTION Good news for landlords who are struggling with non-paying tenants: our courts have recently held that, under certain circumstances, landlords may lawfully disconnect utilities supplied by landlords to non-paying tenants without first needing to obtain a court order authorising the landlord to do so. In the past, our courts have held that landlords may…

RESIGNATION TO AVOID DISCIPLINARY STEPS

It commonly happens that employees resign after receiving a Notice to attend a Disciplinary Hearing, to avoid being dismissed (and to avoid the embarrassment of going through the disciplinary hearing.) Such resignations are usually summary and with immediate effect. It hardly makes sense for an employee who wants to avoid disciplinary steps, to resign on…

NEW HOPE FOR LEGAL REPRESENTATION AT CCMA AND BARGAINING COUNCILS?

It’s been a long-standing principle of dispute resolution at the CCMA and Bargaining Councils, based on the CCMA Rules, that legal representation of any party is never allowed at conciliation or at arbitrations of unfair dismissal disputes, where the dismissal was for misconduct or incapacity, most often poor work performance. A commissioner sitting in the…

TAX ADVISORY SERVICES NOW OFFERED BY THEMIS

In addition to the specialist commercial legal services it currently provides its clients, Themis has the pleasure of announcing that since 1 August 2018 it offers an in-house tax advisory service to complement its commercial law offering. Clients need no longer seek external tax advice as part of any restructure, deal-making and implementation processes.