News & Resources

After losing a tender, we lodged a complaint with the department against their awarding of the tender to a bidder who we are aware operates in a less than reputable fashion. The department informed us they would cancel the tender. Subsequently we have heard that although the tender was cancelled, the department wants to enter into a settlement agreement with the bidder to avoid litigation. Surely such a settlement agreement cannot override fair tender procedures?

I’ve grown up signing our business contracts with pen on paper. With Covid however, most of my suppliers send me their agreements electronically which I sign by adding a copy of my signature digitally or, in some cases using specific software through which I then add my signature. It does make things easier, but I was wondering how valid and binding these agreements are?

I recently had to sign a power of attorney authorising my attorney to act on my behalf in my property transfer. It just got me wondering about what exactly a power of attorney means and for how long it remains valid. Can you enlighten me?

I’m a minority shareholder in a company that has been approached by a buyer willing to buy out all the shareholders. Because of Covid-19 the company has suffered financially and I know that the shareholders holding more than 75% of the company will want to accept the offer even though I believe it to be far below the market value of the shares. Is there any remedy at my disposal?

Our company wants to help out one of our oldest clients by allowing some of our labourers to work for a few months for the client on a project at the client’s site. The client has had to layoff staff during Covid-19 and we would temporarily help him out with our labourers. We would continue to pay our staff with the client paying us a service fee for the labourers and other support services. Our human resources manager however is concerned that we could be seen as labour brokers should we move forward with this arrangement. Would this be the case?

A few years ago, our company entered into a BEE transaction with BEE partners to address our ownership. In the transaction documents, restrictions were imposed on the BEE partners that they could not sell or encumber their shares for a period of at least ten years. These lock-in provisions were a necessary part of the financing and overall transaction. With the current difficult economic times, our partners want to sell a portion of their shares and are disputing the validity of our lock-in provisions. Are lock-in provisions legally enforceable?

I have been married to my husband for more than 20 years. We were both in our early twenties when we were married according to customary rites as well as civilly out of community of property. Since then my husband has built up a few successful businesses and a few years ago we created our own post-nuptial agreement to confirm that we see ourselves as married in community of property. Unfortunately, we have fallen on troubled times and wish to get divorced. My husband says we are still married out of community of property as the agreement we signed late is invalid. Is this true?

I’ve finally found a buyer for my property. I want my brother, who is an attorney, to do the transfer on the sale because then I know it will be done right and fast, but the buyer wants his attorney to do the transfer stating that as he has to pay transfer costs, it should be his right to choose. Whose choice is it?

I’ve had my eye on a farm and approached the farmer about two years ago to sell. His asking price was more than I could afford at the time, but he was prepared to grant me an option for a period of five years to purchase the property on terms which we orally agreed to. I raised the capital and attempted to exercise the option by the delivery of a signed deed of sale, but the farmer did not want to accept and told me our oral agreement was not valid. Is he correct?