If you are a business owner or corporate tenant looking at commercial space in South Africa, chances are the landlord handed you a contract filled with dense legalese and framed as "standard". Here is the truth: there is no such thing as a stand ...
Common Mistakes in DIY Wills And How It Can Cost Your Family
Do-it-yourself wills are tempting. Templates are free online, stationery shops sell them, and many people believe a handwritten page is enough. The cost of getting it wrong is usually discovered only after the person has died. A defective will ca ...
Return to sender: What to do when personal service is not possible Series on Service II: Edictal Citation
Picture this: you loan money to a friend and then not only don’t repay it, they also cut off communications with you and you find out they have moved to a foreign country. You need to claim the money back; it was a sizeable chunk of your savings, ...
Bachelor of Laws or Bachelor of continuous assessment?
Classes, studying, tests, more studying, exams, more studying ... and then suddenly, before you know it, you are a professional who knows basically nothing. As law students, we spend years regurgitating legal principles, memorising case law an ...
The Girl on the Precipice
It was 11 September 2025, and a spring day in Stellenbosch. The sun hung bright above the mountains, yet the air still carried winter's lingering reluctance to leave. I was studying at the Studie Sentrum – though anyone who has studied at Stel ...
From Concept to Community: A Developer’s Guide to Opening a Sectional Title Scheme
Embarking on a sectional title development is a sophisticated investment strategy which transforms a single piece of land into a thriving community of individual owners. However, transitioning from conventional land ownership to a structured sche ...
Company Name Registration Compliance: Legal Implications and the Role of the Companies Tribunal
In a decision delivered at the Companies Tribunal of South Africa on 15 May 2026, a company that had adopted a name strikingly similar to that of another (“the Applicant”) was ordered to change its name. In practical terms, this meant it had to c ...
A Trust or a Will: Choosing the right estate planning tool in South Africa
When a person dies in South Africa, the law must, as a matter of course, immediately step in. The Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965 (“Administration of Estates Act”) requires that an executor be appointed, creditors be paid, and assets dis ...
Power to the Market: What South Africa’s Electricity Regulation Amendment Act Means for Energy Businesses
Introduction: South Africa’s electricity sector is entering a new legal era – for decades, the electricity supply industry has been characterised by a vertically-integrated model dominated by Eskom with generation, transmission and distributio ...
Property Ownership: The Ultimate Girl Math
There's a particular kind of pride that comes with holding the keys to a home that is legally and unquestionably yours. I felt that at 27, standing in an empty lounge that had just become my own property. No co-signer and no husband’s name on the ...