M.Comm. (International Taxation) / Under the South African income tax system, para 12 of the Eighth Schedule states that, when a person ceases to be a resident, he/she is deemed to have disposed of his/her worldwide assets (subject to certain exclusions) at market value the day before he/she terminates his/her residency. Such deemed disposal triggers a capital gains tax charge. Commonly referred to as the ‘exit tax’, it has been in place since the introduction of capital gains tax on 1 October 2001. A recent ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeals found that according to article 13 of a double tax agreement (hereafter “DTA”) based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Model Tax Convention, a deemed disposal is regarded as an alienation of property, and (provided the exclusions do not apply) exclusive taxing rights are given to the Resident State. This has the effect to include the deemed disposal rules relating to exit taxes under this article and potentially override the application of an exit tax under domestic legislation. The override of exit taxes based on a DTA can deprive a country of its fair share of taxes and there is no protection for a country’s tax base. It is important to understand the exit tax and the interaction with DTAs to ensure that there is fairness and equity in the South African income tax system.

Historically, racism was deeply rooted in the workplace in South Africa where white people were largely afforded better opportunities than their black counterparts. This position changed after South Africa became a democratic country. In the new South Africa, legislation has been adopted to combat unfair discrimination. This legislation is founded upon the equality clause contained in section 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Section 9 prohibits unfair direct or indirect discrimination against any person on any of the listed grounds. It also makes provision for protection against unfair discrimination on unlisted grounds. The Employment Equity Act was enacted to bring equality to the workplace and to give effect to section 9(2) of the constitution. The Employment Equity Act promotes equal opportunities and fair treatment and seeks to eliminate unfair discrimination. Section 6 of the Employment Equity Act contains the main thrust of the Act’s prohibition against unfair discrimination. However not all discrimination is unfair. Section 6(2) of the Employment Equity Act provides that discrimination based on the inherent requirements of a job or in terms of affirmative action measures will not be unfair. This section implies that there are grounds of justification which may cause discrimination to be fair. These grounds are affirmative action and inherent requirements of a job. Affirmative action is a purposeful and planned placement and development of competent or potentially competent persons in or to positions from which they were debarred in the past. Affirmative action is an attempt to redress past population, on local and national level. One of the requirements of affirmative action in South Africa is that it must target persons who have been discriminated by unfair discrimination in the past. There are affirmative action measures incorporated in the Employment Equity Act. There exists also a designed programmatic enforcement of affirmative action measures.

M.A. / That South Africa is experiencing a water management crisis, is a fact that cannot be ignored. Although water supply departments and agencies are doing their best under the complex and demanding circumstances and have many examples of successful water projects to show for their efforts, inefficiency, unfairness and unsustainability still characterise much of the use and management of water and resources. This makes satisfying society's growing demand for reliable and legitimate water allocation extremely difficult. Groundwater is usually regarded by consumers as "private" water to be used as they please. Excessive use by such consumers of a borehole may lower the water table and reduce the amount of useable water for other consumers dependant on the same source. Some farms of land use, utilising a larger portion of available rainfall, for example commercial forestry in mountainous areas, reduce runoff into streams lower down, hampering the development potential of downstream areas. Other activities such as agriculture, mining and domestic uses, lower the quality of surface and underground water, making it unsuitable for use. Being such a scarce commodity, water should be used in the most efficient and beneficial way possible for every one in South Africa. In essence this means that all water used must be priced in accordance with its real economic value. The Water Act of 1998 is clearly based on an economic approach to bulk water tariffs. This means allocating water with the aid of water usage rights which are well defined, legitimate and non-discriminatory. The new water Act proposes a water licensing and pricing policy to achieve this goal. In striving for the economic goal, the ideal of sustainability of water management for future generations will become a reality. This study discusses the shortcomings of the previous water legislation as well as the replacement thereof with a more equitable and accessible water act. The study also contains comments on the possible shortcomings with the feasibility of some of the provisions of the new act, such as a conflict of interest that may develop, as well as possible preventive measures that should currently be undertaken to try and eliminate future problems.

LL.M. (Labour Law) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management in Public Policy Johannesburg 2015 / When the newly elected democratic government came into office after the 1994 elections, it introduced reforms in the implementation of government procurement policy. The post-1994 dispensation fundamentally changed the old approach to the management of financial resources of the state. Government passed new legislation and adopted progressive policies relating to government procurement. The two major pieces of legislation, namely, the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) infused the public policy concept of good governance within the realm of public sector procurement. The government procurement system was required to comply with the five principles of good governance, which are: (1) fairness, (2) equity, (3) transparency, (4) competitiveness and (5) cost effectiveness. These five principles have a universal applicability, as they are practised internationally. Their genesis is related to the period when new public management practices were attracting the attention of both developed and developing countries. However, the reforms in the implementation of the public procurement policy faced various challenges and imperfections. Given this, the primary aim of this research study is to examine whether the implementation of government procurement policy over the last 20 years has promoted the five constitutional principles that inform the concept of public procurement, as well as evaluate the implications of non-compliance as reflected in the Public Protector and Auditor General’s reports. The policy review applies a qualitative research methodology that analyses the data from official and unofficial documents, including case studies from selected Public Protector reports as well as selected court cases. Reports from the Auditor General and various newspaper articles are also used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the revised government procurement policy in the post-1994 era. iii | P a g e The results reveal a disjuncture in theory and practice in how public procurement policy is implemented to achieve the objective of good governance. In the main, government officials from affected departments fail to adhere to the requirements of applying a procurement system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective. The results show that the cause of this state of affairs is a lack of understanding of what constitutes a procurement system that complies with the requirements of Section 217(1) of the Constitution. Secondly, the perceived overemphasis on socio-economic objectives over commercial considerations contributes to poor policy implementation. Lastly, the diminishing role of public participation in the processes of awarding tenders has negatively affected the public trust and confidence in public procurement. It is hoped that the recommendations contained in this research report will assist National Treasury in its continued efforts to transform and modernise the public sector procurement.

Thesis (LL.M. (Environmental law and Management)) --University of Limpopo, 2007. / The purpose of this thesis was to critically examine the enforcement of environmental regulations with special reference to the enforcement of offences in the National Water Act 36 of 1998. “Enforcement” was conceptualized as “power” the exercise of which is constrained by the constitutionally guaranteed rights, especially the rights contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996 – the Bill of Rights. “Compliance” was conceptualized as a rational action. The polluter is both a rational economic actor as well as a rational political actor. “Enforcement” and “Compliance” were further considered as economic activities with costs and benefits. The “responsive enforcement and compliance” model was also adopted in this thesis. Environmental regulation is contentious because of the failure to adequately distinguish environmental crimes (mala prohibita) from common law crimes (mala in se) and the erroneous believe in the immutability of law especially pro-defendant procedural rights in criminal prosecution. This failure to distinguish environmental crimes from common law crimes resulted in the requirement of the proof of mens rea in criminal prosecution for breach of environmental law. Arguments were advanced to show that mens rea can easily be proved in environmental law areas of land use and development and resource conservation while it is a Herculean task for the prosecutor to prove mens rea in waste disposal and pollution offences. Arguments were also advanced, in terms of s. 24 of the 1996 Constitution and s. 2 of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998, to show that “sustainable development” and the principles derived therefrom, especially the “precautionary principle” and the “polluter–pays principle”, are part of the corpus of South African constitutional and statutory laws. The “precautionary principle” and the “polluter-pays principle” have assumed the status of customary international law, and consequently part of South African laws in terms of s. 232 of 1996 Constitution. The provisions of s. 24(b) of 1996 Constitution prescribed both positive and negative duties for the state in respect of environmental regulation and prescribed the ambit of environmental regulation in South Africa. The “precautionary principle” is interpreted as deliberation guiding in form and a legal rule in content. The “precautionary principle” as a rule guides the actions of organs of state and other environmental stakeholders. The “polluter-pays principles” is interpreted as a legal rule which should be applied in the “all-or-nothing” sense. Arguments were advanced for the application of the “polluter-pays principles” in criminal prosecution. The legal effect of the application of “polluter-pays principle” in criminal prosecution for environmental crimes is to negative mens rea and transform environmental crimes to strict liability offences. In the environmental law areas of land use and development and resource conservation where mens rea is easily provable, the application of the “polluter-pays principle” would limit the prosecutor’s duty to proving, beyond reasonable doubt, the acts that constitute the offence against the accused. Thereafter, it is opened to the accused to prove, on scale of probabilities, that he lacks the mens rea (dolus or culpa) necessary for conviction. In the area of waste disposal and pollution control where proof of mens rea is difficult, the application of the “polluter-pays principle” should result in the application of the rule in Rylands Fletcher. All the prosecutor need do to obtain conviction is to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, the acts that constitute the offence against the accused. The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is identified and recognized as the dominant social paradigm (DSP) in South Africa. It is within the context of this DSP that environmental regulation is situated. Examining the penal provisions in the National Water Act 36 of 1998 against the background of the DSP, one is not left in doubt why the water pollution and degradation offences in the Act are fault-based. The DSP also partly accounts for the subordination of criminal law to administrative and civil judicial procedures in the enforcement of offences in the NWA 36 of 1998. Offences in the NWA 36 of 1998 were classified into 5 groups– failure crimes, reporting crimes, fraud crimes, obstruction crimes and environmental injury crimes. The failure crimes, reporting crimes, fraud crimes and obstruction crimes are common law crimes (mala in se) in the environmental law context, they are therefore subject to criminal prosecution like any other common law crime. Most of the environmental injury crimes are subject to administrative and civil judicial penalties, that is, the criminal sanction is subordinated to administrative and civil enforcement. The water pollution and degradation offences in s. 151 (1)(i)(j) of NWA 36 of 1998 are fault-based. In a water stressed country, this is a subsidy to industry for job creation and poverty eradication as dictated by the DSP– the RDP. However, in the prosecution for water pollution and degradation offenses, the application of the “polluter-pays principle” would negative mens rea. The legal effect is that in any prosecution for water pollution or degradation, to secure conviction, the prosecutor is only expected to prove the acts constituting the offence beyond reasonable doubt. It is thereafter open to the accused to the prove, on scale of probabilities, that he lacked either the dolus or culpa required to ground conviction. Since different cast of players are responsible for environmental protection and criminal prosecution (the National Prosecution Authority), coordination amongst the environmental agency, the prosecuting authority and the police is recommended. This can be achieved, inter alia, through joint participation in national enforcement conferences and joint participation in environmental task forces.

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development. Department of Economics. / In his budget speech of 2005, the then South African Minister of Finance, Mr Trevor Manuel, announced that the Regional Services Council levies would be eliminated in 2006. He stated that the Regional Services Council levies were being disbanded because they were inefficient, inequitable and a poorly administered local tax instrument. This move by the Minister resulted in widespread discomfort and generated vigorous objections by organised local government and other stakeholders. They claimed that, rather than abolishing their source of revenue, the Minister should rather have enhanced the tax by legislation, since the reasons he provided for labelling the Regional Services Council levies as inefficient, inequitable and poorly administered were incorrect. The rationale for this study is to determine whether the Regional Services Council levies do in fact meet the criteria for being a decentralised local tax. Nkangala District Municipality's situation was used as a case study.

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a detailed and critical commentary on and analysis of South African tax legislation affecting the different offshore business or investment structures available to residents of South Africa so as to establish which is the most tax efficient structure. The different business structures analysed in this dissertation included the following: • Sole proprietorships. • Partnerships. • Companies. • Trusts. The principle provisions of the Income Tax Act dealt with in this dissertation include the following: • Section 9D. • Section 9E. • Section 9F. • Section 25B(2A). • Paragraph 80 of the Eighth Schedule. The following three countries have been selected as countries of investment choice: • The United Kingdom (a ' designated country'). • Kenya (not a ' designated country'). • The Isle ofMan (a tax haven). / Thesis(M.Acc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The aim of this research is to analyse the approach of the courts in determining the capital and revenue nature of income and expenditure. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.