Interpreting the new South African Companies Act: some challenges

Professor Johan Henning examines the South African Companies Act of 2008 and the Companies Amendment Act of 2011 which both came into operation on May 1, 2011. He notes that the new Companies Act elicited a veritable tsunami of legal writing and analyses, both in law journals and in law reports. This is not surprising, especially in view of the fact that by far the greater part of its provisions had to be amended on the day it became operative. His paper focuses primarily on some of the interpretation imperatives of section 5 of the Companies Act, as well as a few of the challenges posed by their implementation.