Moving towards a unified approach for the winding up of companies in view of the "repealed" chapter 14 of the Companies Act 61 of 1973

Abstract

The new Companies Act 71 of 2008 came into effect on 1 May 2011 repealing the Companies Act of 1973. The 2008 Companies Act retained provisions relating to the winding-up of insolvent companies, in particular Chapter 14. It is submitted that even though the 1973 Companies Act has been repealed and only Chapter 14 has been retained for the winding-up of insolvent companies, Chapter 14 cannot be applied in isolation without considering the provisions relating to the winding-up of insolvent companies that fall outside the ambit of Chapter 14 of the 1973 Companies Act. This research proposes a unification of provisions relating the winding-up of both solvent and insolvent companies in a single piece of legislation. Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation. Chapter 2 consists of a brief overview of the development of corporate law in South Africa. Chapter 3 will focus on a descriptive and comparative approach illustrating between single and dual systems, specifically those in between the USA and England, as well as discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the systems. Chapter 4 contains a discussion on the relationship between the 1973 and 2008 Companies Acts in view of their respective liquidation proceedings of insolvent companies. Chapter 5 consists of an analysis of the Draft Bill Proposals in context of a unified bill and corporate legislation. Lastly, Chapter 6 will draw conclusions.