On 26 March 2020, the President announced that South Africa would enter into a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to this, it was common practice for sale agreements to be signed in wet ink by the contracting parties at a physical meeting. However, following the Covid-19 pandemic, many South Africans work remotely and conduct their meetings electronically, including when signing sale agreements. It is important to understand how sale agreements should be signed…

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, speaking at the 16th Annual Competition Law, Economics and Policy Conference, announced a proposed new block exemption for SMMEs, for the purpose of stimulating growth and participation of SMMEs in the economy following Covid-19. These proposed Regulations are open for comment until the end of September 2022. The purpose of the Regulations is to exempt some categories of agreements or practices of SMMEs from the application of…

This blog was co-authored by: Caitlin Gardiner, Candidate Attorney The South African court system has found itself in a new digitised era following the restrictive lock‑down measures introduced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Directives were introduced to safeguard the public’s access to justice which included the widespread adoption of remote technologies such as the introduction of virtual court proceedings and electronic document management. Whilst the technological advancement can be viewed as an advantage…

There are still a number of pending Covid-19 policy interpretation cases being dealt with by the courts in England in the coming months. Stonegate v MS Amlin, Various eateries v Allianz and Gregg’s v Zurich all grapple with the issue of aggregation. Stonegate and the other claimants for example argue that their business interruption insuring clauses are triggered multiple times attracting multiple sub-limits.  The insurers seek to restrict the claim to a single limit. Stonegate…

State procurement has been in a state of flux over the last three years following a number of developments in the enforceability of the legal framework.  State procurement is regulated in terms of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, 2000 (PPPFA).  Since coming into effect on 20 January 2017, the Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2017 have set out the methodology for scoring bids and tenders. The preference point system allocated 80 or 90 points to price,…

In this High Court of Justice judgment, the court declined to permit two members of the pension scheme to bring a derivative claim against the Universities Superannuation Scheme and the directors of its corporate trustee. Derivative claims are made when those with interest in the company, usually shareholders, bring a lawsuit against directors for alleged wrongdoing.  The claimants sought to argue that the trustee breached their fiduciary duties by failing to come up with…

This no-fault compensation scheme previously discussed here, has now amended regulations and directions published on the 4th April 2022, available here. The purpose of the Scheme is to provide expeditious and easy access to compensation for persons who suffer from a Covid-19 Vaccine Injury caused by the administration of an improved Covid-19 vaccine. Injuries covered are serious injuries referred to in Regulation 93.1(1) and (3). The serious injury must have been caused by…