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@90SecondLegal - Beams.fm
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What further compounds these issues is a lack of funding for doctors in South Africa, not only a public health centres poorly funded, but there are a number of medical graduates who aren't being absorbed into the system because the government doesn't have the budget for it now. If you remember, the government itself made investments, uh, years ago into creating a situation where we have a lot more medical graduates graduating at the end of the year, right? This was to meet the needs of the country going forward. But instead these graduates are either sitting at home or or emigrating because there's no budget to absorb them into the South African medical system. Um or well, the government says there's no budget, but they do have 308 million rand to provide to Cuba, So it's all a bit confusing. Uh, it's all a bit opaque, and some clarity would go a long way. So we're hoping that the case that actually say and the DEA you're bringing will provide us that clarity. And with that said, that concludes the final episode of the 92nd legal podcast on this platform. It's been a great ride Thank you so much for listening to me speak for 90 seconds every day. And I hope to catch you on the next release because there definitely will be one stay tuned.
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According to various reports, the South African government has made payments of more than 380 million rand to Cuban doctors and engineers. This was confirmed in a statement by the Acting Public service and administration minister to Mercy. Because of this action is, say, the D A and various other organisations are looking to bring an application in terms of the promotion of access to information act or what we call pie uh two. A court essentially what PIA allows it allows the courts to review unreasonable government decisions or unreasonable government actions that no reasonable person would have made. And what these organisations are trying to find out is how much was actually paid to these doctors and engineers. The rationale for making these payments and clarity as to whether the people to whom these payments were made even exist. So why is the A N. C making these payments to Cuban doctors and engineers? Well, we can't say for sure, but it's fairly obvious that during the Liberation Liberation Struggle of South Africa, Cuba and the A N. C developed close ties. Now, sure we can accept that. But that shouldn't also mean that these tyres must be maintained at the expense of the South African taxpayer. It must be clear that Cuba currently doesn't offer us much as a country.
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yesterday, the South African minister of health signed the director of repealing regulations requiring the wearing of masks in public and also ease restrictions on public gatherings Literally. A day later, it's announced that South South Africa has its first monkeypox case, 30 year old man who, scarily enough has no travel history, which suggests that there are likely already multiple cases in the country now. The reason we can take our masks off now is because our individual and herd immunity levels are such that the virus doesn't spread at the race that it used to, and it doesn't impact our collective health to the same extent. This is shown by the decreased number of Covid 19 emergency cases in emergency rooms across the country. So the government can't currently prove that masking up and staying away from each other is helping with anything. That's why things had to change. But now there's a new thing to worry about, and it might get to a point where we need to enact regulations to contain the spread of monkeypox. We haven't really heard of countries affected by monkeypox incidents going into hard lockdowns or anything, Uh, and a few weeks ago, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases reassured South Africa that the government is unlikely to implement covid like measures to prevent monkeypox infections and the spread of monkeypox. But I remember all too well when governments from several countries were playing down the Covid 19 pandemic in early 2020 so who knows?
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We're into the final week of version one of this podcast being hosted on the Beams platform, and I want to thank everyone who's listened up to this point. The feedback has been very positive. And, of course, we couldn't end the first month of the series without a discussion on football. So the FIFA World Cup ever knows what that is. Uh, it's a It's the biggest football tournament in the world. It's hosted by a different host nations every four years, and this year it's being hosted by Qatar. And that hasn't been without controversy. Uh, Qatar is a Muslim country backed by Sharia law, and the human rights record, uh, in recent decades has been absolutely terrible. So there have been various protests against Qatar, even hosting the World Cup. Now, because the country operates on Sharia law, it should come as no surprise that sex, drugs and alcohol that's extramarital sex will all be prohibited at the World Cup. So these are past times that are normally associated with entertainment at the World Cup. So it begs the question. How fans are going to receive this. I mean, as stated the drinking and party culture after games is sort of the norm for World Cups in general. So will this be the least attended World Cup in football history will have to wait and see.
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now, you may or may not know that Amazon, the online marketplace is coming to Africa and South Africa and Nigeria to be specific. Now, it became clear two years ago that Amazon was was coming to South Africa because there were news suggesting that they were looking for office space or they were looking for land to build office space on. And they found that land. Uh, it seems about a year or two ago and they started started building on that land. But, uh, the building is I know it has been halted because the developers were taken to court by traditional local communities who claim that, uh, the developers didn't do enough public consultations before building on the land. Because these are lands that are used for, uh, the grazing of traditional communities Cattle. The land is also used for traditional ceremonies and gatherings, so the developers aren't currently building because they've been they've been halted by the court. Right? So there's this ongoing legal battle in the background. Uh, which is why I'm I'm very interested to know why these news have been announced at this point when the legal battles haven't been resolved. So it must suggest that the legal battles are close to being resolved. Then
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you might be familiar with the practise of domain squad, but if you don't know what it is, essentially, an Internet user buys a domain name in anticipation that a company that's identified by that domain name somehow will come along and buy it in the future from them. So someone registers facebook dot com in the hope and anticipation that Facebook will come along and buy that domain name from them for their own use. This is a practise that's been going on since the start of the Internet, but it's kicked off now in a big way in the Web. Three space because there's so there's so few Web three users, uh, some of them who are already on these Web three platforms have started buying and hoarding domain names in anticipation that once Web three becomes more, uh, commonly accessible, uh, these companies will come and buy these domain names from them. Uh, so what do you think of this practise? I do know that America tried to outlaw the practise number of years ago by releasing the anti cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which, to be fair, only prevented the the buying and selling of of domain names, which include established trademarks. Uh, but it didn't contemplate domain names with minimal presence in the world. So what do you think about this practise?
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So the Foschini Group or TF G, which is really just one of the best South African companies I've invested in there just a really well run company. And they're responsible for brands like American suis G Star or Total Sports sports scene. Uh, Fabiani. Just just just a lot of brands that are regularly consumed in South Africa. And there are big players in the retail space. They've announced that they are expanding their local manufacturing, uh, network from six sites to 16, which is amazing news, obviously, because it means that they're about to hire a whole lot of people around 6000 people by their estimations, which is great. Uh, it's great. It solves a huge poverty problem in the country. And if they can build these 16 sites, uh, and things go, well, I'm pretty sure there'll be more, but my one question I have is I mean, the whole reason companies look to go offshore or to offshore labour is because of labour costs in this country, right, A labour red tape. So I'm wondering how they've convinced themselves that this won't be an issue for them going forward. So this is what I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on. I'm really keen to see the reasoning behind such a huge investment
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you might recall, uh, the Storey of mirror Trading International M t I. But it was, uh, at the time called by South African regulators the biggest Cryptocurrency scam in the world. Um, it has since been eclipsed. Uh, but this was around 2020 or so, but essentially it was, you know, typical Ponzi scheme. Uh, people invest their monies and you know, they're withdrawing and eventually the withdrawal stop. And when the withdrawals stopped, that's when the whole Ponzi scheme blew up in their faces. This was around late 2020. So long Storey short. The CEO, Johan Steinberg. He fled South Africa and he's now in Brazil, apparently. But the storey is relevant again because South Africa has been trying to extradite him from Brazil for the past few months. And he has, uh, come up with the age old defence against extradition. In that he says, you know, he's now started a family in Brazil and therefore he can't be extradited for prosecution. He's using an age old defence which was used by a famous train robber in the United Kingdom called Ronald Biggs, who the English failed to extradite from Brazil because his girlfriend at the time was pregnant with their son in Brazil. Uh, however, the law has changed, and we should be expecting your own Steinberg in South Africa sometime soon.
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something I've been thinking about recently. When the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, in February during his State of the Nation address, one of sort of like the big moments of his speech And there weren't many, to be honest was when he announced this commitment by the country and by the executive, uh, to remove the amount of red tape There is, uh, in creating and starting a business and running a business in in South Africa. And it got me thinking with all these developments in, uh, sort of transformation laws last week, we spoke about transformation in the in the investment management sector. Uh, there seems to be a regulatory push for for more enforcement of transformation laws. And I was thinking, Are more transformation laws increasing the amount of red tape for businesses, even if you're in support of them, right, there definitely is an argument. A good argument for affirmative action. But do they increase the amount of red tape that it takes? Uh, that you have to get through to start and run a business in this country? Essentially, what I'm asking is, are they helpful right now? Um, and I do not know the answer to that question. I'm still thinking about it, but let me know what you think
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on the topic of Web three and and Blockchain uh, and crypto and n f T s. There's been a lot of talk about how do we actually regulate these digital assets? So two days ago in the United States, the two senators who co sponsored a bill called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which is quite interesting and this is supposed to address, um, regulation of the digital asset sector, uh, in the States. So after recent catastrophes like the collapse of Luna, uh, and and US tea and various other stable coins, Um, as well as just the general poor performance of crypto over the past year or two. Uh, there does need to be some increased level of, uh, investor protection. Uh, so, uh, some of the main things that the bill addresses are sort of taxing digital assets, how payments and banking must be set up. The security, um, that digital asset companies must have over these assets, uh, and on the taxes. Specifically, I found that quite interesting in that purchases of over $200. So if you purchase an n F. T for over $200 you're now when the bill comes into into into power. You will then be subject to tax on that which I think is quite interesting and quite a it's quite a significant move.
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But before he can even tell the world that his f n is n f t has been stolen, that has been the victim of a phishing scam. Uh, this FFT has already sold to a third party. Um uh, so, uh, at the time, what he did was he tweeted at the new owner, um, and and and and the owner didn't respond. But the interesting legal questions that arise here are Who owns the commercial rights? Uh, to the stolen n f T. Is it Seth Green? Is it bored? Cape Yacht Club who he he bought the n f T. From. And if you go into the board, a yacht club website and you look at, uh, there's there's there's a bunch of wording under a heading called Ownership, And this apparently is supposed to describe who actually owns the n F. T s. But it's written so ambiguously that it's actually not clear who owns the commercial rights to the stolen N. F. T. And another, uh, related question is, if Steph just launches the show, can the new owner sues F for I P infringement? Uh, and that's an interesting question, because I don't think the answers to this are as easy as they normally would be. If this was just a normal as a painting, for example, uh, but in fact, there will be a part three to this because we'll see how this unfolds, and hopefully I'll have more legal feedback.
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Okay, There's going to be a part one and part two to this one. But today a very hectic day, By the way, I was reminded of a storey that I've been following for a long time and particularly because I'm starting to get into the n f T Web three, uh, space. There's quite a few laws developing worldwide in that space. Now, uh, but the storey is the one of Seth Green. And if you don't know Seth Green, just Google him. I'm pretty sure you know him from somewhere, but Long Storey short, Uh, he buys a one of these like very in demand board AP Yacht Club LFTs, uh, which is essentially these FTS where it's like the monkey And like, uh, you know, in one n f t, he'll he'll look cool. The other you'll look distressed or, you know, it's just various, um, depictions of this ape, All right? And so Seth Green buys one of these, and because of the underlying commercial rights he gets from purchasing these, uh, he starts working on a show right that will feature this N f. T. As the main character of the show. But before he can actually put the show out. Um, he has been working on it because there have been snippets and trailers and so on. But before he can actually launch the show, he becomes the victim of a phishing scam. A long storey short. Someone sends him a link. He clicks on the link, N F T gets stolen and then gets sold to a third party.
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While there's no law that places a cap on executive salaries and bonuses in South Africa, that does seem to be a trend starting where shareholders are coming out in their numbers and voting against proposed executive remuneration structures. I started noticing it when Sibanda store water came out with their year and results. Uh, in the executive remuneration proposal proposed that Neil Frohman received 300 million rand in salaries and bonuses. Uh, we've also seen Kabateck, where 47.5% of their shareholders rejected the proposed executive remuneration uh, policy, in which the Fourie, their CEO, was supposed to receive 93 million rand. Now, I'm interested in how these companies actually take the feedback from these shareholders because shareholder votes on remuneration aren't binding, right? So the companies could still go ahead and pay their executives what they've proposed. They will pay them, but of course it helps to have the shareholders on your side when you're running a company at the end of the day, the company has run for the benefit of the shareholders. It's worth stating that the companies listed on the J. C are required by the JCs listing requirements to engage with dissenting shareholders so the companies could go ahead, but they still need a consultative process with the dissenting shareholders.
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on the back of yesterday's episode, people are interested on how they can go about saving legal costs. Right. So just one way to do that is if you're seeing someone or someone is suing you or you just need legal assistance instead of accepting whatever see your lawyer gives you, which will probably be an hourly fee, ask them for a flat fee, Right? How much will it cost you for the lawyer to handle the entire case? Uh, to its conclusion, right. Not every lawyer will be able to give you one of these because actually, flat fees can go against the lawyer in that if the case carries on forever, they can start losing money at some point. Right. But there are lawyers who would be willing to negotiate a flat fee. And what this does is that it provides certainty to you of how much this case is gonna cost you at a maximum. And you can even negotiate with your lawyer that you will pay the fee in increments. Uh, that suit you So that could be You'll pay a certain amount every month or a certain amount every three months. Whatever you can agree with your lawyer. But do take the initiative and try to negotiate these things. Don't just accept whatever is thrown at you by your lawyers. Cheers.
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get today's as a Taliban contracting how to be your own lawyer a little bit. So when I am, uh, concluding contracts not necessarily for for the clients I work for, but for for myself, let's say like a cellphone contract. Or I recently signed a contract to receive fibre to my apartment. Um, the one thing that I always look for if I'm generally happy with the service I'm receiving and the price that I'm paying is how do I get out of this contract if it starts sucking or if it starts working against me or I can no longer afford it at some point, how do I actually get out of this contract? So it's important to look at. It will often be called the term and termination provisions or just the term provision or just the termination provisions. But you're looking for, uh, are the terms clear? Is it clear how I can get out of this? Are there any penalties that I need to pay? Is there an automatic rollover provision? Uh, where the contract automatically renews, Let's say at the end of one year, but I only have 10 days at the end of that one year, uh, to make clear that I don't want the contract to renew. Uh, so if you're not a person who closely monitors your contract was not well organised, you might not want that automatic rollover provisions. So just watch out exactly how you can get out of a contract will save you a lot of money.
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transformation has been a hot topic in South Africa for a long time now, and this debate has often been led by industry regulators. So when the asset management industry it's been led by the FSC a regulate financial conduct in the industry, but now a large asset manager Alex Forbes have quite bravely stuck their necks out when it comes to the transformation debate, they've stated now that any fund managers or consultants who want to do business with them must have at least 40% black investment professionals and 40% women in their investment teams. Senior management must also be 40% black. They plan to implement this from June 2000 and 22 so this month, but they've given stakeholders a three year phase in process. So by one June 2025 Alex Forbes will no longer work with fund managers that don't meet the previously stated requirements. It's quite the statement from Alex Forbes, and it's caused somewhat of a stir in the asset management industry. Industry stalwarts such as Magnus Haystack, for example, have revealed that clients have already requested that their money is moved away from Alex Forbes. People often assume that transformation leads to lower quality work and worse returns when studies have in fact shown that the opposite is true. It's also worth noting that Alex Forbes aren't doing the solo out of their own initiative. They reveal that they've been requests directly from clients for their money to be managed by black and women managers.
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SHA, Risk specialists, which are a division of Santam Limited every year they perform this annual risk assessment, which is intended to highlight the high level risks of doing business in South Africa. And the report this year is quite interesting. I can't stop talking about it. Apologies to all my friends and family. The report this year says 63% of of more than 63% actually of South African small businesses rely on free antivirus software. And it got me thinking, How many of these businesses do we give our personal data to? How many of these businesses are storing and processing your sensitive information that you give them where you live? Uh, your your spouse's names, how many kids you have? I think it should be normal to ask companies that we give our money to what level of antivirus protection they have. It will give, if nothing else, an indication of how seriously they take the confidentiality of our data and how seriously they take our business. The World Economic Forum recently in the past year or two highlighted cyber threats as one of the biggest threats of the next decade, and I feel like it's time for South African companies and companies in general to pick up on how serious that is.
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so greenwashing is becoming a particularly hot topic and has been actually for a few years now in the Investment Management Fund management industries. Uh, greenwashing, if you don't know what it is, is essentially conveying, uh, false or misleading information to make a company's products or services Seymour environmentally friendly than they actually are. So if you're someone who picks your stocks or your you advise your brokers to pick your stocks based on a company's E S G performance or the E S G scores because you want your money to fund a socially responsible corporate behaviour, then this is a particularly noteworthy development for you and that the SEC has recently proposed new rules requiring funds or investment managers that market themselves in their products as E. S G to provide data backing up those claims. So if you're a fund manager that markets, uh, the investment products as E S g. R. E s G centric, you would be required to provide information describing exactly how your product achieves that. And the SEC says the proposals are made due to increasing investor interest in green or sustainable investment products. This is very interesting, and for sure we're going to see more of this in different jurisdictions.
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