Foreign Investors' Rights and Obligations Under the Protection of Investment Act 22 of 2015

Abstract

The South African Investment Climate has been developing since the dawn of democracy. The government of South Africa has entered into different BITs immediately after the end of the apartheid government. This was done as a way of attracting FDIs into the country to develop the economy and to also form relationships within the international community. Since the first BIT which was entered into in the early 1990s the South African law governing FDIs has changed tremendously and this was seen by the termination of those BITs and the introduction of new legislation governing the FDIs. The termination of the BITs was done as a way of responding to the imbalance and unfairness that was found in such BITs towards the government of South Africa. The BITs were said to provide more rights and no obligations to foreign investors and as such, they were imbalanced. This research work will therefore provide an analysis of the rights and obligations of foreign investors under the new legislation in South Africa, making reference and comparison to the previous BITs as well as looking at the regional and continental level to make comparison with the South African law so as to see if there can be a balance of rights and obligations in international investment law.