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Controlled foreign company (“CFC”) legislation, governed by section 9D of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, serves as anti‐avoidance legislation in South Africa’s residence‐based tax system. Section 9D provides for the calculation of a deemed amount which must be included in the South African resident’s income. This deemed amount is calculated with reference to the net income for the CFC’s foreign tax year. Section 9D(6) provides for this deemed amount, which is denominated in the foreign financial reporting currency, to be translated into South African rand by applying the average exchange rate for that year of assessment. The legislation refers to the South African resident’s year of assessment and not the CFC’s foreign tax year. It is submitted that the average exchange rate for the CFC’s foreign tax year should be used for translation. The author therefore disputes the period to be used in calculating the average exchange rate.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the concept of Black economic empowerment in South Africa. The paper examines whether government interventions in the area of corporate social responsibility post‐1994 have been successful. The paper also assesses critically the level of voluntary commitment that businesses in South Africa have displayed in the area of corporate social responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility in South Africa pre‐1994 and post‐1994 is examined and compared. The Broad‐Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (2003), the new South African Companies Act (2008) and the King Codes of Corporate Governance Principles in South Africa are critiqued. A distinction is made between government and business corporate social responsibility initiatives.

The paper principally concludes that meaningful corporate social responsibility in the area of human rights can be better achieved if it is based on commitment and collaborative partnership.

The paper provides a basis for empirical research on corporate social responsibility and socio‐economic development in South Africa.

This paper adds to the growing discourse of academic literature that supports a strategic partnership‐based approach to corporate social responsibility.

The success rate of business rescue in South Africa is concerningly low as it currently ranges between 10% and 12%. This study intends to make a positive contribution towards addressing this problem by obtaining insight from professional business rescue practitioners regarding the feasibility of making use of the practice of business rescue to assist South African state-owned enterprises to avoid them going into insolvency and indefinitely stopping operations. This study, which is a generic qualitative study, will rely solely on the experience and insights of the business rescue practitioners in order to obtain a better understanding of the problem at hand. Nine participants were interviewed during September and October 2020. The study found that business rescue practitioners are confident that the business rescue proceedings are a solution to preserving state-owned enterprises. However, the level of political interference by the unions, government officials, and also the continued bailouts from the government to support these state-owned entities are some concerns raised by the participants as they hinder the effectiveness of the proceedings with regard to state-owned enterprises. Academically, the study expands to the literature on business rescue in the context of state-owned enterprises and what challenges are hindering the process. For managers, the study identifies the key constraints which are most likely to be encountered when conducting business rescue proceedings in a state-owned enterprise which, if not observed, will negatively impact the success rate.

Differential reporting was introduced in South Africa with the enactment of the Corporate Laws Amendment Act 24 2006. Since it was urgent that the standard‐setters provide limited interest companies with interim guidance as to the preparation and presentation of financial statements, South Africa adopted the International Accounting Standards Board’s International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Mediumsized Entities in its draft form. This study looks at the development of accounting standards for small and mediumsized entities in South Africa. It also examines analyses of prior research on differential reporting and the due process of the International Accounting Standards Board on this topic, as well as the due process of the South African standard‐setter. The paper provides a contextual analysis of the unique reporting environment of South African companies and concludes that adopting the draft IFRS for SMEs may have been the best option for the standard‐setting body in providing relief for limited interest companies from the cost of complying with the International Financial Reporting Standards while still enabling auditors to express an opinion on the financial statements.

A company that is registered with share capital may issue different classes of shares and may confer rights on members, which place them in different classes in the company’s organisational structure. This paper is concerned with the propensity for encroachment on such vested class rights as companies strive to wriggle out of business challenges spawn by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the extent of protection that the law accords to the different classes of shareholders and members in a company especially when the company seeks to vary the vested class rights.

A doctrinal methodology, which relies on existing literature, case law and statutory instruments, is adopted to explore the nature of class rights and the adequacies of the remedial measures availed by statute to the aggrieved bearers of class rights in the context of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 with inferences drawn from the UK companies statute and case law.

The findings indicate that accessing the remedies available to aggrieved shareholders under the relevant statutory provisions are fraught with conditionality, which could make them elusive to those who may seek to rely on such provisions to vindicate any encroachment on their class rights.

The paper embodies cogent information on the interpretation and application of the relevant statutory provisions geared at the protection of shareholders class rights, which should serve as guides to companies and the courts in dealing with matters that affect the vested class rights of shareholders and members of a company.

The paper shows that protections offered to classes of shareholders under the law can also be extended to classes of members who are not necessarily shareholders, and that shareholders who seek to vindicate their class rights may conveniently rely on Section 163 that provides for unfair prejudice remedy to avoid the onerous conditions under Section 164 of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008, which directly deals with class rights.

The anti-apartheid movement represented a cornerstone for socially responsible investors in the 1970s and 1980s driven by the willingness to promote lasting social change. What happened next in terms of socially responsible investing (SRI) in the free South Africa? This chapter explores the local development of SRI in South Africa post-apartheid.

An in-depth literature review combined with a content analysis 73 SRI funds’ investment mandates were undertaken to investigate the local development of SRI in South Africa over the period 1992–2012.

Mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence have both shaped the phenomenon of SRI in South Africa. SRI in South Africa represents a melting-pot of societal values anchored in a local developmental and transformative political vision, some local and global Islamic religious values, and worldwide SRI and CSR homogenisation trends.

This chapter is the first attempt to outline the mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence that have moulded SRI in a democratic South Africa.

Section 80A(c)(ii) of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, as amended (the Act), introduced a new concept to the South African income tax environment: misuse or abuse of the provisions of the Act, including Part IIA thereof. According to the Revised Proposals on Tax Avoidance and section 103 of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (Revised Proposals) the rationale behind the insertion of section 80A(c)(ii) was to reinforce the modern approach to the interpretation of tax statutes “in order to find the meaning that harmonizes the wording, object, spirit and purpose of the provisions of the Income Tax Act”. The objective of this article is to examine the rationale behind section 80A(c)(ii) of the Act.

This paper examines the exercise of Black employee voice in South Africa over the past 53 years. Black workers constitute almost 4 out of every 5 workers in the country and experienced racial oppression from the time of colonisation up to the end of apartheid in 1994. They are still congregated around the lower skilled occupations with low incomes and high unemployment levels.

The paper draws on the theory of voice, exit and loyalty of Albert Hirschman, but extends voice to include sabotage as this encapsulates the nature of employee voice from about 2007 onwards. It reflects a culture of insurgence that entered employment relations from about that time onwards, but was lurking below the surface well before then.

The exercise of employee voice has gone through five phases from 1963 to mid-2016 starting with a silent phase for the first ten years when it was hardly heard at all. However, as a Black trade union movement emerged after extensive strikes in Durban in 1973, employee voice grew stronger and stronger until it reached an insurgent phase.

The phases employee voice went through were heavily influenced by the socio-political situation in the country. The reason for the emergence of an insurgent phase was due to the failure of the ruling African National Congress government to deliver services and to alleviate the plight of the poor in South Africa, most of whom are Black. The failure was due to neo-patrimonialism and corruption practised by the ruling elite and politically connected. Protests by local communities escalated and became increasingly violent. This spilled over into the workplace. As a result many strikes turned violent and destructive, demonstrating voice exercised as sabotage and reflecting a culture of insurgence.

The South African Companies Act of 2008 (SACA2008) seeks to reaffirm the company as a means of promoting the economic welfare and development of South Africa by encouraging efficient, transparent value‐additive corporate management. The purpose of this paper is to present the important role of the cost of capital for financial valuations that are consistent with the purposes of SACA2008, as stated in Section 7.

The relevant sections of SACA2008 of this legislation were studied. The role of the cost of capital in performing and interpreting financial valuations was presented. As the CAPM is widely used, and in cases is the only approach used to estimate the cost of capital, an update of CAPM empirical evidence was presented to affirm the conclusion by Fama and French that the CAPM is not an acceptable way of estimating the cost of capital. The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was studied to ascertain the implication of using valuation criteria that lack empirical validity.

Management that makes financial decisions on the basis of criteria that have not been empirically validated may find it difficult to defend challenges to their efforts at complying with SACA2008 and promoting the success of the company.

From an extensive survey of publicly available literature, there is no evidence to suggest that research on the role of the cost of capital in helping achieve the purposes of SACA2008 has been published. Without a valid and reliable cost of capital it will be difficult to achieve the purposes of this legislation.