Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Corporate governance has become the latest business "buzz-word" during the last number of years. It is almost being used as an excuse for too many things that go wrong with, or within, companies. However, the word is not going to disappear from business lexicon, it has come to stay. Too many companies and investors have suffered due to the greed of individuals, appointed to lead and manage the business that have misused their position of trust and enriched themselves in many ways. This could have been brought about by many reasons: • Directors who have not been trained properly for their fiduciary duties and other duties and responsibilities. • Directors who have not been evaluated on their performance as a board or individually. • No formal governance structures within the organisation. • No culture of accountability within the organisation. • Simple greed. This study concentrates on some of the literature, ranging from the Cadbury report released in 1992, the OECD principles and international trends, to the South African King II Report, released in 2002. From the literature, and the recommendations from it, there can be no doubt that the pressure to improve governance structures will become fiercer around the globe. Investors are taking it seriously and are willing to pay a premium for shares in a properly governed enterprise. Directors will have to sharpen their skills in being the primary instrument in preventing further corporate scandals. The importance of their accountability towards the company will be measured when board evaluation no longer is an exception, but the rule, in creating effective boards. Agricol Beherend Limited should be no exception. Although not required to formally comply with the recommendations of the King II Code, it can only be advantageous in striving to long-term sustainability. It is further concluded that entrepreneurship is at the heart of capitalistic society, the sphere in which businesses operate in creating wealth for their investors. This is where the influence and leadership abilities of non-executives play a vital role in creating the environment and culture for enterprises to flourish in. They have to determine the equilibrium between conformance and performance in keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive, yet complying with best practice principles of corporate governance. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Korporatiewe bestuur, of beheer, het oor die laaste aantal jare die nuutste gebruikswoorde in die besigheidsomgewing geword. Dit word feitlik as verskoning gebruik vir alles wat met, of binne-in, organisasies verkeerd loop. Desnieteenstaande, die woorde gaan nie van die algemene besigheidsspreektaal verdwyn nie, dit het gekom om te bly. Te veel maatskappye en beleggers het gely onder die hebsug van individue wat aangestel is om maatskappye te lei en te bestuur, maar wat hulle vertrouensposisie misbruik het om hulself op verskeie maniere te verryk. Dit kon deur 'n verskeidenheid van redes teweeggebring gewees het: • Direkteure wat nie behoorlik opgelei is in hulle fudisiëre pligte, asook ander pligte en verantwoordelikhede nie. • Direkteure wat nie behoorlik geëvalueer is op hulle prestasie as 'n raad of op individuele basis nie. • Geen behoorlike formele korporatiewe bestuursstrukture binne die maatskappy nie. • Geen kultuur van verantwoording binne die maatskappy nie. • Eenvoudige hebsug. Die studie konsentreer op sekere gedeeltes van die literatuur wat strek van die Cadbury verslag wat in1992 vrygestel is, die OECD beginsels en internasionale tendense, tot by die Suid-Afrikaanse King II verslag wat in 2002 verskyn het. Uit die literatuur, en die aanbevelings daarin vervat, kan daar geen twyfel wees dat die druk om korporatiewe beheerstrukture te verbeter in die toekoms, wêreldwyd, slegs groter sal word nie. Beleggers is besig om ernstig daarna op te let en is selfs bereid om 'n premie te betaal vir aandele in 'n organisasie wat behoorlike korporatiewe bestuur toepas. Direkteure sal hulle vaardighede moet opknap, aangesien hulle die primêre instrument is om verdere korporatiewe skandale te voorkom. Die belangrikheid van hulle verantwoording teenoor die maatskappy sal gemeet word wanneer die evaluering van direksies nie meer die uitsondering is nie, maar die reël, in die samestelling van effektiewe direksies. Agricol Beherend Beperk behoort geen uitsondering te wees nie. Alhoewel dit nie verlang word om formeel aan die aanbevelings van die King II Kode te voldoen nie, kan dit slegs tot voordeel wees in die strewe na langtermyn volhoubaarheid. Die verdere gevolgtrekking is dat entrepreneurskap die kern vorm van 'n kapitalistiese bestel, die ruimte waarin besighede opereer om welvaart vir beleggers te skep. Dit is waar die invloed en leierskapsvaardighede van nie-uitvoerende direkteure 'n belangrike rol speel in die skepping van 'n omgewing en kultuur waarbinne besighede kan floreer. Hulle moet die ekwilibrium bepaal tussen voldoening en prestasie, deur 'n gees van entrepreneurskap, terwyl daar voldoen word aan beste korporatiewe bestuursbeginsels.

Sectional ownership has introduced several new concepts of property that differ significantly from prevailing as well as common-law concepts of property. The right of extension with regards to sectional titles is one such concept. The right entails a subtraction from the dominium of sectional owners and is widely regarded as a limited real right. It is submitted that the right cannot be categorised into any common-law category. The right is a statutory limited real right sui generis that has its own characteristics with regards to the way it is established, transferred, alienated, burdened or lapses. The right should also be recognised as constitutional property. The study concludes with an investigation into selected aspects relating to the right as an estate asset and points to problems relating to the valuation of the right for purposes of estate, capital gains and donation tax. / LLM (Estate Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

After emergency department (ED) discharge, Spanish-speaking patients with limited English proficiency are less likely than English-proficient patients to be adherent to medical recommendations and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their visit.

Although the spectral technique is frequently used for the horizontal discretization in global atmospheric models, it is not common in limited area models (LAMs) because of the non-periodic boundary conditions. We apply the Haugen-Machenhauer extension technique to a regional three-layer shallow-water model based on double Fourier series. The method extends the time-dependent boundary fields into a zone outside the integration area in a way that periodic fields are obtained. The boundary fields necessary for the regional model simulations are calculated in advance by a global simulation performed. In contrast to other studies, we use exactly the same numerical model for the global and the regional simulation, respectively. The only difference between these simulations is the model domain. Therefore, a relatively objective measure for errors associated with the extension technique can be obtained. First, we compare an analytic stationary non-linear and non-periodic solution of the governing model equations with the spectral LAM solution. Secondly, we compare the time evolution of pressure and fiow structures during a westerly fiow across an asymmetric large-scale topography in the global and regional model domains. Both simulations show a good agreement between the regional and the global solutions. The rms-errors amount to about 2 m for the layer heights and 0.2 ms-1 for the velocity components in the mountain fiow case after a 48 h integration period. Finally, we repeat this simulation with models based on 2nd and 4th order finite differences, respectively, and compare the errors of the spectral model version with the errors of the grid point versions. We demonstrate that the high accuracy of global spectral methods can also be realized in the regional model by using the Haugen-Machenhauer extension technique. / Obwohl spektrale Techniken häufig zur horizontalen Diskretisierung in globalen Atmosphärenmodellen genutzt werden, sind sie aufgrund der nicht-periodischen Randbedingungen in Regionalmodellen nicht üblich. Wir verwenden das Erweiterungsverfahren von Haugen und Machenhauer in einem Flachwassermodell mit drei Schichten, das auf doppelten Fourier-Reihen basiert. Das Verfahren setzt die zeitabhängigen Randfelder so in einen Bereich außerhalb des Integrationsgebiets fort, daß man periodische Randbedingungen erhält. Die für die Simulationen mit dem Regionalmodell benötigten Randfelder werden mittels einer zuvor durchgeführten globalen Simulation berechnet. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Untersuchungen verwenden wir genau das gleiche Modell für die globale und die regionale Simulation. Der einzige Unterschied zwischen den beiden Simulationen ist das Modellgebiet. Dadurch erhält man ein relativ objektives Maß für die Fehler, die durch die Anwendung des Erweiterungsverfahrens entstehen. Als ersten Test vergleichen wir zunächst eine analytische, stationäre, nicht-lineare und nicht-periodische Lösung der Modellgleichungen mit der spektralen Lösung des Regionalmodells. Zweitens vergleichen wir die zeitliche Entwicklung von Druck- und Strömungsmustern während einer westlichen Strömung über eine unsymmetrische, großskalige Topographie im globalen bzw. regionalen Modellgebiet. Beide Simulationen zeigen eine gute Übereinstimmung der globalen und regionalen Lösungen. Die rms-Fehler betragen ungefähr 2 m für die Schichthöhen und 0.2 ms-1 für die Geschwindigkeitskomponenten bei der Bergüberströmungssimulation nach einer Integrationszeit von 48 h. Darüberhinaus wiederholen wir diese Simulation mit auf Finiten Differenzen 2. bzw. 4. Ordnung basierenden Modellen und vergleichen die Fehler der spektralen und der Gitterpunktversionen. Wir zeigen, daß die hohe Genauigkeit der globalen spektralen Methoden durch die Anwendung des Erweiterungsverfahrens von Haugen und Machenhauer auch auf das regionale Gebiet übertragen werden kann.

My thesis consists of two main parts. First part deals with major changes introduced by the Company Act 2014 and the New Civil Code 2014 to the regulation of the share in the Limited Liability Company. The aim of the first part is to analyse the most significant changes introduced by the Company Act 2014 and the New Civil Code 2014 and to present various arguments in favour of and against this new regulation. I have decided to compare the Czech regulation with the German regulation which has already introduced similar changes five years ago. The main contribution of this part is therefore not only to provide critical evaluation of the new regulation, but also to point out that in some situations we can draw inspiration from the German regulation. Second part focuses on the transfer of the share, agreement on the transfer of share and special ways in which the share can be transferred. My thesis is divided into four chapters. First (introductory) chapter defined the share generally, using its qualitative and quantitative aspects. Second chapter deals with the abovementioned changes introduced by the Company Act 2014 and the New Civil Code 2014, more specifically it deals with the fact that the New Civil Code 2014 distinguishes the share as a thing in the legal sense, the fact that the Company Act...

Protection of minority shareholders after recodification of Czech private law The purpose of this thesis is to concentrate upon chosen areas of protection of minority shareholders, analyse them and review the advantages and disadvantages of the recodification of Czech private law in these areas. Simultaneously the thesis evaluates the usability of the existing judicial decisions and outlines possible development of the legislation. In the parts of the thesis where the author believes it is useful, the thesis compares these areas with foreign legislation and doctrine. The thesis is systematically composed of 4 chapters. The introductory part of the thesis consists of two separate chapters that describe the notions of minority and qualified shareholder and explain the reasons of their protection. After the definition of areas of protection of minority shareholders, chapter three concentrates on the areas of the protection that the author considers significant in terms of position of the minority shareholder in the company after the recodification. At first the thesis focuses on the participation of the shareholders in the corporate governance, specifically on the rights of qualified shareholders. The next part of the thesis highlights the new legal institute incorporated in the Czech legal order...

Liability of shareholders and other persons for debts of the company (multinational included) This master thesis is devoted to the issue of the legal liability of shareholders and others for debts of the company in consequence of their influence on the company or in case of its insolvency. The former is not a wholly new institute in Czech law, however it raises many new questions especially because of its broader concept. The latter is an entirely new issue in the Czech legal system which was influenced by the English concept called wrongful trading. The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one briefly presents the concept of limited liability of the shareholders, its development, significance and criticism, including certain means that are used by the legal systems and courts to break the limited liability under some specific circumstances. Chapter two points out certain legal devices that had provided protection for creditors and that were abandoned, which may leads to the higher importance of the legal liability of the shareholders and other persons connected with the company. Chapter three concerns the concept of influential and controlling person, and also explains the concept of shadow director and de facto director under English law. Subsequently it presents certain categories of...

The protection of minority members in limited liability companies after recodification of private law ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to give an enumeration of protective instruments available to a minority shareholder in a limited liability company after the recodification of Czech private law and to engage in further analysis of these instruments. The thesis is divided into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter defines basic terminology used in the thesis, such as 'minority shareholder' and 'qualified shareholder'. The second chapter focuses on the position of a minority shareholder in a limited liability company and introduces the reasons to protect such a minority shareholder and the risks connected with an excessive protection of minority shareholders. Chapters 3 and 4 form the hearth of this thesis. The third chapter offers a detailed analysis of instruments available to every shareholder in a limited liability company, including a minority shareholder. These instruments include separate voting, motion to declare member's vote or general meeting's voting null and void, cumulative voting, right to information, derivative action, claim for reflective loss, claim for compensation for damage from influential person, right to suggest an appoitment of an expert to...

This thesis is dedicated only to an influence of a member on managing company limited by shares. The thesis was written between the legal effects of two acts, but the new legal regulation, with regard to the old regulation and case law, developing for more than 20 years, was the base for my thesis. The first chapter describes the key terms of this thesis, which are crucial for good understanding of the whole problematic. The second chapter deals with the term share, which represents the participation of a member in a company. The chapter analyses its quantitative and particularly its qualitative aspect. The institute of share has changed in such a way that it has to be explained precisely. Understanding of the term share is important for the whole thesis, because it is the share itself, which represents the influence of the member. The focal point of my thesis is described in the third chapter, which deals with a member's right to participate on managing company limited by shares. This right is asserted especially through general meeting. The chapter gives an overview about the main changes in competence and functioning of the general meeting. There is also member's influence beyond the general meeting, through per rollam decision-making, described in this chapter. The chapter also contains a...

Pledging a share in a business corporation In my master thesis I focus on pledging a share of shareholder a limited liability company, which is a relatively common legal disposition with the share. Master thesis is based on valid and effective legal regulation that brought a number of innovations. In some chapters there is also mentioned the historical development of the institute for better orientation of the readers. The thesis examines legal literature, legal periodicals as well as attempts to capture also the applicability of existing case law on the new legislation. The main contribution of this work is to provide an interpretation of the provisions of which so far there is little consensus in the legal community, as well as pointing on problems and risks that regulation brings, especially from the perspective of the pledgee. The thesis is divided into four chapters, each chapter focuses on a different area of pledging a share of shareholder a limited liability company. The first chapter defines general issues of pledge and define the subject of a lien and includes a brief introduction of the legal nature of the share. In the second chapter, the reader is introduced into the mode of the establishment and creation of a pledge to a share, assumptions of its pledgebility and the process of...