NIGHT FALL

Guest; Wayne Duvenage - Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) Chief Executive Officer 

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) believes recent threats by Eskom and certain municipalities to fine or disconnect electricity supply for failing to register their small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) systems (Solar PV) are impractical, irrational and unfair. We have also notice significant amendments to earlier supposed requirements and deadlines by the authorities, which is generating more uncertainty and ambiguity on their demands and threats to households with solar installations.

OUTA has received a surge of queries and concerns from the public, following threatening communications from Eskom and certain municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg, demanding registration or prior approval for SSEG installations under 100 kW, which do not feed electricity back into the grid.

This has created unnecessary uncertainty, confusion and anxiety for households, installation companies and other industry stakeholders. 

“What is at stake here, are the rights of citizens who have gone to significant personal expense to protect themselves against years of escalating electricity prices and an unreliable power supply,” says OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage. “People have installed gas appliances, solar power systems, generators, inverters and other alternatives, in direct response to Eskom and Government’s calls - as well as incentives - to reduce electricity demand.

The uncertainty also has knock-on effects, leading to solar installation projects being delayed, with some solar installation financiers, insurers and installers being unsure how to proceed.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

https://www.outa.co.za/blog/newsroom-1/solar-users-shouldnt-register-with-eskom-or-municipalities-1466

Guest; Harry Joffe - Head of Legal at Discovery Life

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has found that a divorced couple’s antenuptial contract, signed after their customary marriage, is invalid because it was never formalised through the courts.

The judgment was delivered on Wednesday, 21 January, bringing clarity to the legal position governing matrimonial property regimes where couples enter into both customary and civil marriages.

The case involved a couple identified as J.R.M (plaintiff) and V.V.C (defendant), who entered into a customary marriage on 5 August 2011.

At the time of their marriage, no antenuptial contract was concluded.

This resulted in the marriage being in community of property, with both spouses acquiring equal, undivided shares in their “joint estate”.

Several years later, on 19 February 2019, the couple signed an antenuptial contract.

The document stipulated that a civil marriage they intended to conclude in the future would be out of community of property, subject to the accrual system.

The civil marriage was eventually concluded on 10 June 2021.

The relationship subsequently deteriorated, with both parties stating that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and could not be restored.

In court proceedings, J.R.M contended that it had always been the mutual intention of the parties for their marriage to be out of community of property and governed by the accrual system.

A constitutional challenge against Section 10(2) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act was later launched.

Section 10(2) provides that when spouses to an existing customary marriage conclude a civil marriage, their matrimonial property regime remains in community of property unless an antenuptial contract provides otherwise.

However, V.V.C argued that the effect of the Section 10(2) caused her to lose ownership rights over assets registered in her husband’s name, despite those assets forming part of the joint estate created by the customary marriage.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/courts/concourt-customary-marriage-antenuptial-contracts-valid/

Dewald Olivier -  Dewald Olivier - International Meat Secretariat
Organised agriculture has cautiously welcomed Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen’s 10-year phased plan to combat foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which continues to cripple the beef and dairy industries in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Farmers have been battling the disease for more than a year. Restrictions on the movement of cattle, imposed to curb its spread, have halted auctions and dealt a severe blow to the rural economy. Dairy farmers have been particularly hard hit, as FMD directly affects milk production.Steenhuisen’s plan begins with immediate mass vaccination in hotspot provinces. The target is to vaccinate 90% of South Africa’s commercial cattle, 80% of communal cattle, and 100% of feedlot and dairy cattle within 12 months.

Vaccines will be imported from Argentina, Botswana and Türkiye, supplemented by local production at the State-owned Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP). OBP is expected to produce 20 000 doses a week from March, with capacity set to increase towards a target of 960 000 doses.

South Africa is also expected to receive five million imported vaccine doses by March. The department has applied to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority to authorise the importation and registration of the Biogenesis vaccine.

More than two million cattle have been vaccinated since the current outbreak began in 2022. Despite this, the livestock industry has suffered an estimated R5.6 billion in export losses since the start of 2025.

Steenhuisen said a memorandum would soon be submitted to Cabinet to declare FMD a National State of Disaster, allowing government to rapidly deploy resources, strengthen movement controls and fast-track regulations.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

https://www.citizen.co.za/northern-natal-news/news-headlines/local-news/2026/01/22/farmers-cautiously-welcome-fmd-plan-as-industry-pressure-grows/

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/steenhuisen-sets-out-stringent-10-year-strategy-to-contain-and-eradicate-fmd/

Guest; Goodenough Mashego -Independent Political Analyst

South Africa is currently in a transitionary phase where the ruling party no longer holds majorities in a number of metropolitan, district or local councils across South Africa. This has resulted in many coalition governments being formed at local government level. The 2024 National elections have also resulted in the ruling party slipping below 50% of the votes. What this means for South Africa is that coalition governments will now be the ‘‘new norm’’, at a national, provincial and local government level. Parties and Independent Candidates will have to come together and form workable coalitions for the good of the Republic of South Africa.

However, the current issue with coalition governments at local government level is that a high number of political parties are needed to join together in order to gain a majority in the council. What this means is that coalition governments are sometimes made up of up to 10 or more political parties, the majority of these parties having obtained only one seat each in the council. Often, in practice, some of these parties gain a seat without even first obtaining the requisite votes needed for such seat (namely, the seat quota). Instead, such a seat is obtained through the next stage of the highest surplus calculations. The effect of this is that opposition parties continuously lobby these smaller parties to retract from coalitions in exchange for positions or favour. These ‘‘one person’’parties who obtain a fraction of the votes required for a seat, now become ‘‘king makers’’, which can destabilise entire governments which, in turn, affects service delivery to the very people who voted these parties in.

1.3 The Local Government: Municipal Structures SecondAmendment Bill, 2025 (‘‘the Bill’’), aims to prevent circumstances such as these from occurring by providing for an electoral threshold into the calculation and allocation of seats in councils.

1.4 Thepractice of electoral thresholds is not a new concept. Electoral thresholds (albeit expressed in percentages) are used in a number of countries such as Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Ukraine and more.

1.5 The Bill also seeks to extend the period within which the first meeting of the council must be called after it has been declared elected, thereby extending the period within which the speaker, whip, an executive mayor, executive deputy mayor, mayor and deputy mayor can be elected in the council to provide more time for parties to engage with each other to form stable coalitions.

OBJECTS OFBILL 2.1 The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act No. 117 of 1998) (‘‘the Act’’), so as to provide an electoral threshold into the calculation and allocation of seats in councils so that parties must first obtain the number of the votes equal to the seat quota +1 before they are even entitled to be considered for seat calculations and allocations. This will ensure that smaller parties, who do not enjoy the confidence of the voters, are not let into council through ‘‘the back door’’ by way of the second-round highest surplus calculations.

2.2 TheBill also seeks to amend theAct by extending the period within which the f irst meeting of the council must be called after it has been declared elected, such meeting to be called within 30 days after being declared elected, as opposed to the current 14-day period provided for in theAct.This will, in turn, extend the time period within which the speaker and whip should be elected in 5 council as such election will take place at the first sitting. The Bill also extends the time period within which members of the executive committee must be determined and the time period within which an executive mayor and executive deputy mayor may be elected. These extended periods will provide more time for parties to engage with each other to form stable coalitions.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

ActionSA to announce merger with two political parties today.

With the local government election expected later this year, ActionSA will announce a merger with two political parties.

Consolidation

Party spokesperson Matthew George said the two political parties will be joining ActionSA in “consolidating a credible and united alternative.”

“Monday’s announcement marks another important milestone that highlights ActionSA’s growing appeal to South Africans across provinces who resonate with our fight to fix South Africa.

“This fight requires the consolidation and strengthening of a unified alternative capable of displacing the failed establishment parties ahead of the upcoming Local Government Elections,” George said.

George said the announcement will be led by ActionSA President Herman Mashaba, alongside Deputy President Dr Mbahare Kekana, National Chairperson Michael Beaumont, National Spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni and the leaders of the respective political parties.

“They will be joined by key leadership from both ActionSA and the merging political parties.”

Declining support

ActionSA has experienced a significant decline in electoral support following its peak in the 2021 local government elections, particularly in the 2024 national and provincial elections, where its support plummeted to 1.2% countrywide.

In the 2021 local elections, ActionSA attracted a healthy 296 345 votes in Johannesburg. That 16.05% translated to 44 out of 270 council seats. Mashaba’s party did not win any wards.

Although ActionSA’s support has shrunk, its representation in the Joburg Council remains 44 until the 2026 local elections.

Uniting smaller parties

In January 2025, ActionSA declared its intention to unite smaller opposition parties under one banner.

The party announced it would be absorbing Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD), which won 18 523 votes in the 2024 national elections.

At the time, ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont illustrated how his party did not align with the “colossus” that is the government of national unity (GNU) while also not forming part of the Progressive Caucus which is made up of liberation forces.

Residence-based tax system

Michael Kransdorff from the Institute for International Tax and Finance.

Greenlandic politician and co-founder of the territory's liberal Cooperation Party, Tillie Martinussen

Greenlandic politician and co-founder of the territory's liberal Cooperation Party, Tillie Martinussen, has thanked European countries for standing behind the island as it faced down takeover threats from US President Donald Trump.

"I have to say the Greenlandic people are so grateful to all our European allies as well as Canada. They have really stepped up in this question here and we have seen them learning from past mistakes. And I think that's wonderful. We're very, very happy with the European Union as it is right now and Europe as a whole," she said in an exclusive interview with Euronews Romania.

In recent weeks, Trump said the US must take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, citing its strategic importance for national security.

Those demands almost brought the transatlantic alliance to collapse, particularly after he threatened punitive tariffs on European countries that rallied around Greenland

Thembisa Fakude – Senior Research Fellow And Director At Africa Asia Dialogues (Afrasid)An urgent diplomatic intervention is awaiting President Donald Trump in Davos after days spent hurling threats at US allies over Greenland. 

Top European officials are planning to use this week’s annual summit of global elites as their staging ground for averting a fast-blooming crisis that has put the continent on edge — and may now threaten the survival of its seven-decade alliance with the United States, three people familiar with the discussions told CNN. 

That push from allies comes as even some in Trump’s orbit have expressed private misgivings over the president’s rhetoric and have sought an off-ramp.

Guest;Claire Waldeck - Attorney at Waldeck Attorneys, Gauteng

Trade marks play a crucial role in the economic landscape, and its significance for businesses operating in and from South Africa cannot be overstated.

A trade mark is a distinctive sign or symbol used in the marketplace to identify and differentiate identical or similar goods or services of one trader from those of another. This article explores the importance of trade marks for businesses operating in and from South Africa, highlights the benefits trade marks provide and the role it plays in fostering economic growth. This article also demonstrates why an intellectual property (IP) strategy – which encompasses trade mark protection – is needed by businesses, in addition to a company registration.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, protecting your brand is essential. Registering a trademark in South Africa is a powerful way to secure your intellectual property and safeguard your unique identity. Whether you’re a start-up or an established business, trademark registration ensures that your logo, name, or slogan remains exclusively yours, setting you apart from competitors. Among the various forms of intellectual property, trademarks are essential for differentiating products and services and creating a sense of brand identity in the marketplace. It is impossible to overestimate the significance of trademark protection in light of South Africa’s ongoing rapid economic growth and innovation in a wide range of industries. Individuals and organisations can confidently manage the complexity of trademark registration by being aware of the appropriate legislation, existing case law, and the step-by-step process.

GUESTS Angus McKenzie - Bonteheuwel Ward Councillor Peter Helfrich - Ward Councillor for Ward 109

Tshepo Matseba – Managing Director for Reputation 1st Group