COMPANIES, CREDIT, IP AMENDMENT ACTS: STATUS UPDATE

COMPANIES, CREDIT, IP AMENDMENT ACTS: STATUS UPDATE

• 23 October 2024
• Trade, Industry & Competition
• SA Legal Academy

The 2024 Companies Second Amendment Act giving effect to certain Zondo State Capture Commission recommendations may well have been operationalised by April 2025 – although the 2024 Companies Amendment Act’s implementation is likely to take longer. This is according to a Department of Trade, Industry & Competition briefing document presented recently to members of the National Assembly committee concerned.

The document also provides updates on the status of the following legislation:

• National Credit Amendment Act, 2019 (providing for debt intervention and a raft of related measures intended curb over-indebtedness and promote change in borrowing and spending habits) (on hold pending a decision on concerns raised by stakeholders about its constitutionality)
• Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act, 2013 (intended to recognise and protect certain manifestations of indigenous knowledge) (on hold pending a decision on the Act’s overlap with the Protection, Promotion, Development & Management of Indigenous Knowledge, 2019), and
• various statutes under review including the:
  • National Credit Act, 2005, and underpinning policy
  • National Gambling Act, 1996, and underpinning policy
  • Patents Act, 1978
  • Designs Act, 1993, and the
  • Trade Marks Act, 1993.

The Companies Amendment Act’s overarching objectives are to:

• reduce red tape reduction and address issues found to have become unnecessarily burdensome to legitimate business activity
• achieve facilitate greater equity between directors, senior management, shareholders and employees, and to
• curb excessive executive pay level practices.

The Companies Second Amendment Act focuses on measures for dealing with delinquency on the part of a company director.

Against that backdrop, the briefing document notes that:

• ‘most’ of the Companies Amendment Act’s ‘main sections’ are ‘ready to be implemented’
• provision is made for the Minister to proclaim separate section-specific commencement dates, facilitating incremental operationalisation
• some sections cannot be implemented without regulations, which are a work in progress, and
• others include measures on which stakeholders raised concerns during the parliamentary process, therefore requiring further consultation.

Please click the link below for more information:

• briefing document 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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