March 2010 Archives

The Consumer Protection Act which was signed into law on 29 April 2009, becomes effective between April and October 2010.  It affects a broad range of consumers and transactions - for example if you receive a product as a gift from family, you are entitled to protection under the act even though you did not contract with the supplier directly.

The act also affords protection to small businesses whose turnover or asset value is less than a threshold - The National Credit Act uses R1m as a threshold, so expect something similar here.

The implications for you as a provider of products or services are:

Do not hold your breath...  Getting a simple task such as a name reservation - which used to take 24 hours - is now taking 4 weeks!

Woes of CIPRO unfortunately affect us all.  The New Companies Act cannot be fully implemented without CIPRO functioning, neither can businesses register trade marks, or business names as required by the Consumer Protection Act.

The only advice is PLAN AHEAD.  Make sure you allow plenty of extra time for changes you may require to your statutory records.

Does your company or close corporation trade under names which are different to their registered name? 

The Consumer Protection Act which is likely to come into effect in October 2010 will outlaw this.

"Section 79 of the Act prohibits any person from carrying on business except under the person’s full name as recorded in an identity document or officially recognised or in the case of a juristic person (for example, a company), a business name registered with the Registrar of Companies." a

 I recently returned from a 2 week bicycle adventure where we cycled from Howick in Kwa Zulu Natal to Cape Town.  While the 1878 kilometers proved challenging at times, it was the people that made a tremendous impact.

One particular farmer on the edge of the Karoo showed us how things should be done.