Academic literature on the topic 'Standardized terms of contract – South Africa'

Background Since the novel coronavirus emerged in late 2019, the scientific and public health community around the world have sought to better understand, surveil, treat, and prevent the disease, COVID-19. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), many countries responded aggressively and decisively with lockdown measures and border closures. Such actions may have helped prevent large outbreaks throughout much of the region, though there is substantial variation in caseloads and mortality between nations. Additionally, the health system infrastructure remains a concern throughout much of SSA, and the lockdown measures threaten to increase poverty and food insecurity for the subcontinent’s poorest residents. The lack of sufficient testing, asymptomatic infections, and poor reporting practices in many countries limit our understanding of the virus’s impact, creating a need for better and more accurate surveillance metrics that account for underreporting and data contamination. Objective The goal of this study is to improve infectious disease surveillance by complementing standardized metrics with new and decomposable surveillance metrics of COVID-19 that overcome data limitations and contamination inherent in public health surveillance systems. In addition to prevalence of observed daily and cumulative testing, testing positivity rates, morbidity, and mortality, we derived COVID-19 transmission in terms of speed, acceleration or deceleration, change in acceleration or deceleration (jerk), and 7-day transmission rate persistence, which explains where and how rapidly COVID-19 is transmitting and quantifies shifts in the rate of acceleration or deceleration to inform policies to mitigate and prevent COVID-19 and food insecurity in SSA. Methods We extracted 60 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries and employed an empirical difference equation to measure daily case numbers in 47 sub-Saharan countries as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. Results Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa have the most observed cases of COVID-19, and the Seychelles, Eritrea, Mauritius, Comoros, and Burundi have the fewest. In contrast, the speed, acceleration, jerk, and 7-day persistence indicate rates of COVID-19 transmissions differ from observed cases. In September 2020, Cape Verde, Namibia, Eswatini, and South Africa had the highest speed of COVID-19 transmissions at 13.1, 7.1, 3.6, and 3 infections per 100,0000, respectively; Zimbabwe had an acceleration rate of transmission, while Zambia had the largest rate of deceleration this week compared to last week, referred to as a jerk. Finally, the 7-day persistence rate indicates the number of cases on September 15, 2020, which are a function of new infections from September 8, 2020, decreased in South Africa from 216.7 to 173.2 and Ethiopia from 136.7 to 106.3 per 100,000. The statistical approach was validated based on the regression results; they determined recent changes in the pattern of infection, and during the weeks of September 1-8 and September 9-15, there were substantial country differences in the evolution of the SSA pandemic. This change represents a decrease in the transmission model R value for that week and is consistent with a de-escalation in the pandemic for the sub-Saharan African continent in general. Conclusions Standard surveillance metrics such as daily observed new COVID-19 cases or deaths are necessary but insufficient to mitigate and prevent COVID-19 transmission. Public health leaders also need to know where COVID-19 transmission rates are accelerating or decelerating, whether those rates increase or decrease over short time frames because the pandemic can quickly escalate, and how many cases today are a function of new infections 7 days ago. Even though SSA is home to some of the poorest countries in the world, development and population size are not necessarily predictive of COVID-19 transmission, meaning higher income countries like the United States can learn from African countries on how best to implement mitigation and prevention efforts. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.2196/21955

In recognition of the injustices of South Africa’s apartheid past, employers have a responsibility to ensure that employment equity practices are implemented, without harming important aspects of the employment relationship, such as the psychological contract and the intention to leave. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the psychological contract, employment equity legislation practices and the intention to leave (as measured by structured questionnaires comprising standardised scales) in an open distance higher education institution. In this regard, special attention was given to the influence of employment equity on employees’ intention to leave, which forms an important part of the psychological contract. The study also focused on the differences that exist between the three different social groupings (Africans, white males and white females, coloureds and Indians), gender and qualification levels regarding their perceptions about how the psychological contract influences employment equity legislation practices and intention to leave. A quantitative survey was conducted on a stratified random sample of employees (N = 339) who were white (58.4%), male (50.1%) and between the ages of 31 and 60 and were all employed at an open distance higher education institution. Correlational statistics and multiple regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the three variables. In the South African employment equity context, the findings provide valuable information that can be used to inform managers and human resource practitioners on employment equity strategies. The practical implications of the findings also add new insights in terms of the psychological contract, intention to leave and management of the employment relationship.

During the apartheid era, consumers in South Africa, based on their race and ethnicity, were restricted when concluding contracts, as there was no open market trade. As consumers, hotel guests could also be victims of unfair business practices. Hotels use standard form contracts that may include unfair terms that favour the business and which are over-protective of business interests. A significant percentage of the population have low literacy levels, which severely disadvantage them when it comes to understanding the content and consequence of contracts. The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) introduces wide-ranging legal measures to protect consumers, including hotel guests, from exploitation and abuse in the marketplace and sets out comprehensive obligations for hotels. This article provides a descriptive critique based on literature and describes the challenges faced by hotel guests and discusses the implications of the Act for hotels and guests. It concludes that not only does the CPA advocate ethical business practices that are mandatory for hotels, but it also introduces a range of rights and protection for guests as consumers. The CPA has introduced a shift in contract law from a standpoint which allowed the parties the freedom to choose the content of the contract to one where fairness and transparency is imperative, as protection in terms of legislation compensates for the weaker bargaining position of the consumer.

During the apartheid era, consumers in South Africa, based on their race and ethnicity, were restricted when concluding contracts, as there was no open market trade. As consumers, hotel guests could also be victims of unfair business practices. Hotels use standard form contracts that may include unfair terms that favour the business and which are over-protective of business interests. A significant percentage of the population have low literacy levels, which severely disadvantage them when it comes to understanding the content and consequence of contracts. The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) introduces wide-ranging legal measures to protect consumers, including hotel guests, from exploitation and abuse in the marketplace and sets out comprehensive obligations for hotels. This article provides a descriptive critique based on literature and describes the challenges faced by hotel guests and discusses the implications of the Act for hotels and guests. It concludes that not only does the CPA advocate ethical business practices that are mandatory for hotels, but it also introduces a range of rights and protection for guests as consumers. The CPA has introduced a shift in contract law from a standpoint which allowed the parties the freedom to choose the content of the contract to one where fairness and transparency is imperative, as protection in terms of legislation compensates for the weaker bargaining position of the consumer.

In South Africa, the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) regulates and protects the position of the employee who reasonably expects that a fixed-term contract will be renewed on the same or similar terms while the employer only offered to renew the contract on less favourable terms or in some instances was not prepared to renew the fixed-term contract at all. The LRA regards the latter conduct as a dismissal, as long as the employee can prove that the employer was responsible for creating the reasonable expectation of contractual renewal. In contrast to this position, the LRA does not regulate or protect the position of the employee whose fixed-term contract was repeatedly renewed on the same, similar or even improved terms, while the employer was in a position to offer the employee indefinite employment. The employer may even have created a reasonable expectation that repeated renewals would result in permanent employment. The exploitation and abuse of the fixed-term contract to the extent that an employee is deprived of employment security and the benefits linked to an employment relationship of indefinite duration have prompted a comparative investigation into this particular field of law.

ABSTRACTThis article presents an ethnographic analysis of the popular economy of informal musical production in the Venda region of South Africa. It focuses on the activities surrounding the Burnin' Shak Studio, a recording house that specializes in reggae music. Reliant on second-hand computers, pirated software, borrowed instruments, networks of trust and cycles of debt, musicians and producers in the Burnin' Shak occupy a distinctly peripheral position in South Africa's music industry. Unlike artists in the formal sphere of musical production, who sign deals with specific record labels, musicians in the informal sector seek out sponsors – usually young local businessmen – to fund their recordings with local producers. Marketing and distribution is the sole responsibility of the artist and the sponsor, who often develop a ‘patron–client’ relationship. And yet whilst the artists' entrepreneurial activity often earns them significant airplay on local radio stations, and associated cultural capital, the financial benefits are slim. In order to convert their cultural capital into cash, musicians in the informal sector must compete in the market for performances at government-sponsored shows. These shows are well funded by lucrative tenders, but they present musicians with a double-edged sword. To secure a contract with tender holders – or to entertain hopes of regular paid performances – musicians must ensure that these performances do not express critical political sentiment. As purveyors of a genre renowned for its critical social commentary, reggae musicians are particularly affected by this expectation of self-censorship. Informal musical production in the post-apartheid era thus affords musicians little artistic freedom. Rather, whilst the products of this culture industry may appear to be part of a ‘secondary’ economy, removed from the spheres of formalized production and control, they are in fact regulated and standardized through the process of tender allocation.

The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to investigate the relevance of gender and race to turnover intention among public sector workers (PSW) through the moderation of psychological contract type and organisational commitment dimension. The research hypotheses in this study set out to test relationships between psychological contract type and turnover intention and between organisational commitment dimension and turnover intention. Using gender and race as key variables, further hypotheses tested whether significant differences in PSW psychological contract type existed; whether differences in PSW organisational commitment dimensions were present; and whether significant relationships between psychological contract type, organisational commitment and turnover intention were found. A survey was conducted with 211 PSW in a provincial government department in the Western Cape, South Africa. In terms of turnover intention, the results showed that coloured and white PSW were the groups that showed a positive relationship between transactional psychological contracts and an intention to leave the public sector. For white PSW, this was paradoxically coupled with high levels of continuance commitment. This is a significant finding because high levels of this form of commitment temper the turnover intention of this group. Across gender and race, relational psychological contracts were positively correlated with affective and normative commitment and inversely related to turnover intention. PSW holding relational psychological contracts experienced high levels of emotional attachment and loyalty to the public sector which contributed significantly to a desire to remain with their employer. The study addresses a conspicuous and important gap in the literature and suggests a number of recommendations for public sector management in South Africa in the light of the findings.

Guarantees play an important role in large commercial contracts internationally. Guarantees can be either independent (demand) guarantees or accessory guarantees. The legal consequences of the two differ significantly and, therefore, it is important to differentiate clearly between the two. In the case of independent (demand) guarantees – the focus of this contribution – the guarantor’s liability is independent of the underlying performance it is guaranteeing, and is accordingly to be determined, in principle, with reference only to the terms of the guarantee. However, this is not an absolute principle. Jurisdictions throughout the world recognize exceptions to this principle, the most important and prevalent being fraud on the part of the beneficiary. A Judicial Interpretation by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China relating to independent guarantees came into operation in December 2016. Its rules depart in some important respects from the law of guarantees in South Africa, both in relation to the determination of the nature of the guarantee (as independent or accessory) and in relation to the exceptions to the principle of independence. This article explores these issues against the background of the law of contract of both countries.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore South African and Italian consumers' attitude toward online wine purchasing. In detail, through the application of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this research intends to explain the antecedents of consumers actual online purchasing of wine in South Africa and Italy.Design/methodology/approachTwo questionnaire-based surveys were conducted, yielding a sample of 190 consumers in South Africa and 179 in Italy. Data were analyzed through several techniques including t-tests, principal component factor analyses, and binary logistic regressions.FindingsOverall, the findings show that South African and Italian online wine consumers are more similar than the offline wine consumers. However, perceived usefulness has an impact on the use of the online channel to purchase wine in Italy but not in South Africa, whereas perceived complexity has an effect in South Africa but not in Italy.Research limitations/implicationsThis study adopts a convenience sampling technique, suggesting that the used samples are not representative of the whole population. Moreover, TAM offers a simple and clear understanding of the actual use of wine e-commerce but overlooks other potential explanatory factors.Practical implicationsTargeting online wine consumers in South Africa and Italy opens up the opportunity for using cross-national highly standardized product and communication strategies. However, different approaches are required to convert offline wine consumers to online wine consumers in South Africa and Italy.Originality/valueThis is the first cross-national study investigating consumers' attitude toward online wine purchasing in South Africa and Italy. Moreover, it offers a comparison of online and offline wine consumers in the two countries. In addition, the research offers a new point of view over consumers of Italy and South Africa, two important countries in terms of wine production and consumption that can be very beneficial for wineries owners and managers.

In England, the contractual doctrine of economic duress is an important mechanism for curbing abuses of superior bargaining power. In contrast, in South Africa, the courts are yet to articulate a definitive doctrine. In this article, I argue for a twenty-first century South African doctrine of economic duress that is delineated primarily in terms of South Africa’s foundational constitutional value of equality. For this purpose, I consider English contract law and show how it is a concern for ‘equity’ that has been central to its treatment of economic duress. I then highlight the normative limitations of the English doctrine, but argue that the English legal experience of economic duress remains valuable for corresponding developments in the modern South African commercial context, especially in light of the latter’s post-apartheid constitutional framework, which provides the normative content of baseline standards that must inform its doctrine of economic duress.

This thesis examines the bases for the implication of terms, the relation between interpretation and implication as well as the relation between the bases for the implication of terms and the theories of contract formation. There is authoriative support in England and South Africa for the following bases for the implication of terms: (a) unexpressed subjective consensus; (b) the reasonable expectation principle; (c) logic and/or the rational construction of the contract; (d) legal rules or incidents governing particular kinds of contractual relationships; and (e) the Moorcock doctrine. It is submitted the the Moorcock doctrine should be discarded, because it involves an artificial approach to the resolution of cntractual disputes which obscures the true reasons for the implication of terms in individual cases and is conducive to much uncertainty. The law will be none the poorer if the doctrine is abandoned, because the courts' powers to interpret contracts and to recognise novel legal rules governing particular kinds of contractual relationships are adequate tools for the resolution of contractual disputes. It is shown that the courts frquently manipulate the principles of the Moorcock doctrine in the interest of justice. This practice has obscured the emergence of a principle to counter-balance the doctrine of sanctity of contract. It is argued that the appropriate counter-balancing principle is that the courts have the power to adopt and apply rules governing particular kinds of contractual relationships after an evaluation of the competing considerations of policy attending the kind of relationship in question. Examples of specific policy considerations which may be of assistance in this regard are supplied. The influence of English law on the South African law relating to implied terms is examined.

Thesis (MAcc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Section 24C of the Income Tax Act No. 58 of 1962 (‘the Act’) provides for a deduction of future expenditure that will be incurred by the taxpayer in the performance of his obligations under a contract from which the taxpayer derived income. Due to uncertainties regarding the meaning of certain words and phrases used in section 24C, the first aim of this assignment was to determine the meaning of the word ‘expenditure’ and the phrase ‘will be incurred’ as used in section 24C. The second aim was to establish how a taxpayer will prove with certainty that he will incur future expenditure in the performance of his obligations under a contract. This was done by discussing the effect of contractual terms and other circumstances and by taking into account certain additional guidelines regarding the interpretation of section 24C provided for in Interpretation Note: No. 78 (‘IN 78’). It was established that the word ‘expenditure’ means the amount of money spent, including the disbursement of other assets with a monetary value. The word ‘expenditure’ also specifically includes the voluntary payments and disbursements of assets. The word ‘expenditure’ can also include a loss if the word ‘loss’ can be equated to the word ‘expenditure’. The phrase ‘will be incurred’ implies that the taxpayer will, in a subsequent year of assessment, have an unconditional obligation to pay for expenditure, which must arise from the taxpayer’s obligations to perform under the contract. Contractual terms and other circumstances can indicate whether there is certainty that future expenditure will be incurred as aforementioned. Conditions and warranties are contractual terms that indicate that there is uncertainty regarding the taxpayer’s obligations to perform under the contract. A time clause in a contract can indicate that there is certainty regarding the taxpayer’s obligations to perform under the contract. Similar contracts with similar conditional obligations to perform cannot be grouped together in order to determine the probability, and thus the certainty, that future expenditure will be incurred in the performance of the taxpayer’s obligations under a contract. The probability that a taxpayer will perform his unconditional obligation under the contract must, however, be proved in order to demonstrate that there is certainty regarding the incurral of the future expenditure. IN 78 does not specify whether a loss which can, in certain circumstances, be equated to the word ‘expenditure’, is deductible under section 24C. This should be clarified. The new undefined phrases (a high degree of probability, inevitability, certainty and potentially contractually obligatory), as used in IN 78, might cause confusion when interpreting section 24C. These phrases should be defined and it should be explained how the high degree will be measured. Lastly, is was shown that an anomaly occurs regarding trading stock at hand at the end of a year of assessment, which will be utilised in a subsequent year of assessment in the performance of the taxpayer’s obligations under a contract. Such trading stock does not represent ‘future expenditure’ and must be excluded from the section 24C allowance. However, due to the interplay between section 24C and section 22(1), the taxpayer does not receive any tax relief for the expenditure actually incurred to acquire the closing trading stock in the year in which such trading stock is acquired. It is, therefore, questioned whether the established interpretation of section 24C is in agreement with the Legislator’s original intention with section 24C namely, to match income received under a contract with the related deductible expenditure.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Artikel 24C van die Inkomstebelastingwet No. 58 van 1962 (‘die Wet’) voorsien ʼn aftrekking vir toekomstige onkoste wat deur die belastingpligtige aangegaan sal word in die nakoming van sy verpligtinge ingevolge ʼn kontrak waaruit hy inkomste verkry het. As gevolg van onsekerhede ten opsigte van die betekenis van sekere woorde en frases wat in artikel 24C gebruik word, was die eerste doelstelling van hierdie navorsingswerkstuk om die betekenis van die woord ‘onkoste’ en die frase ‘aangegaan sal word’, soos wat dit in artikel 24C gebruik word, te bepaal. Die tweede doelstelling was om vas te stel hoe 'n belastingpligtige met sekerheid sal bewys dat hy toekomstige onkoste sal aangaan in die nakoming van sy verpligtinge ingevolge ʼn kontrak. Dit is gedoen deur die effek van kontraksbedinge en ander omstandighede te bespreek en deur sekere bykomende riglyne ten opsigte van die interpretasie van artikel 24C, soos vervat in Interpretasienota No. 78 (‘IN 78’), in ag te neem. Daar is vasgestel dat die woord ‘onkoste’ die bedrag van geld wat bestee word, insluitend die uitbetaling van ander bates met 'n geldwaarde, beteken. Die woord ‘onkoste’ sluit ook spesifiek vrywillige betalings en uitbetalings van bates in. Die woord ‘onkoste’ kan ook 'n verlies insluit, indien die woord ‘verlies’ gelyk gestel kan word aan die woord ‘onkoste’. Die frase ‘aangegaan sal word’ impliseer dat die belastingpligtige, in 'n daaropvolgende jaar van aanslag, 'n onvoorwaardelike verpligting sal hê om vir onkostes te betaal. Hierdie onkostes moet ontstaan weens die belastingpligtige se verpligtinge ingevolge die kontrak. Kontraksbedinge en ander omstandighede kan aandui of daar sekerheid is dat die toekomstige onkoste, soos hierbo genoem, aangegaan sal word. Voorwaardes en waarborge is kontraksbedinge wat daarop dui dat daar onsekerheid is rakende die belastingpligtige se verpligtinge om ingevolge die kontrak op te tree. ʼn Tydsklousule in 'n kontrak kan aandui dat daar sekerheid is rakende die belastingpligtige se nakoming van sy verpligtinge ingevolge die kontrak. Soortgelyke kontrakte, met soortgelyke voorwaardelike verpligtinge kan nie saam gegroepeer word ten einde te bepaal of dit waarskynlik, en gevolglik seker is dat toekomstige onkoste in die nakoming van ʼn belastingpligtige se verpligtinge ingevolge die kontrak aangaan sal word nie. Die waarskynlikheid dat 'n belastingpligtige sy onvoorwaardelike verpligting ingevolge die kontrak sal nakom moet egter bewys word ten einde aan te dui dat daar sekerheid is dat toekomstige onkoste aangegaan sal word. IN 78 spesifiseer nie of 'n verlies wat, in sekere omstandighede, gelyk gestel kan word aan die woord ‘onkoste’, ingevolge artikel 24C aftrekbaar is nie. Duidelikheid hieromtrent moet verskaf word. Die nuwe, ongedefinieerde frases ('n hoë graad van waarskynlikheid, onafwendbaarheid, sekerheid en potensieel kontraktueel verpligtend (vry vertaal)), soos in IN 78 gebruik, kan moontlik verwarring veroorsaak wanneer artikel 24C geïnterpreteer word. Hierdie frases moet gedefinieer word en daar moet verduidelik word hoe ʼn hoë graad gemeet gaan word. Laastens blyk dit dat 'n teenstrydigheid ontstaan ten opsigte van handelsvoorraad op hande aan die einde van 'n jaar van aanslag, wat in 'n daaropvolgende jaar van aanslag deur die belastingpligtige in die nakoming van sy verpligtinge ingevolge 'n kontrak gebruik sal word. Sodanige handelsvoorraad verteenwoordig nie ‘toekomstige onkoste’ nie en moet by die artikel 24C toelaag uitgesluit word. Die belastingpligte ontvang egter, weens die wisselwerking tussen artikel 24C en artikel 22(1), nie ʼn belastingverligting vir die onkoste werklik aangegaan in die jaar waarin sodanige handelsvoorraad verkry is nie. Dit word dus bevraagteken of die bewese interpretasie van artikel 24C in ooreenstemming is met die Wetgewer se oorspronklike bedoeling met artikel 24C, naamlik, om inkomste ontvang ingevolge ʼn kontrak met die verwante aftrekbare uitgawes te paar.

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England).
Mercantile Law
LL.D.

In this thesis the position of parties under a fixed-term agreement under section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 is analysed critically. The purpose of this thesis is first to establish whether parties to a fixed-term agreement are better protected in terms of section 14 of the CPA when the consumer needs to terminate the contract based on the material failure to perform by the supplier, than under the common law. Second, this thesis explores whether the maximum duration of fixed-term agreements should be limited by statute. Various aspects affecting parties to these agreements, for instance the freedom to contract, pacta servanda sunt, and standard-form agreements, are considered. The South African position is then compared to the position in Singapore under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, and to the United Kingdom under the Consumer Rights Act, to gain perspective and objectively evaluate the provisions of section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 to establish whether South Africa can benefit from lessons learnt from these jurisdictions. Finally, principle-based amendments to the provisions of the CPA are recommended to improve the position of the consumer under fixed-term agreements to effect best practice solutions and ensure adherence to the aims and purposes of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and international guidelines. This thesis is based on the law as at 18 June 2020, found in sources available in South Africa, and Singaporean law available in the database of the National University of Singapore.
Hierdie proefskrif is ’n kritiese analise van die posisie van partye tot vastetermynkontrakte ingevolge artikel 14 van die Suid-Afrikaanse verbruikersbeskermingswetgewing, die Consumer Protection Act 68 van 2008 (CPA). Die doel van die analise is eerstens om vas te stel of partye tot ’n vastetermynkontrak ingevolge artikel 14 van die CPA beter beskerming geniet ingevolge die CPA wanneer die verbruiker die vastetermynkontrak moet beëindig weens die wesenlike wanprestasie deur die verskaffer, as ingevolge die gemenereg. Tweedens ondersoek die proefskrif of dit wenslik is dat die maksimum duur van vastetermynkontrakte deur wetgewing beperk word. Verskeie aspekte wat die posisie van partye tot vastetermynkontrakte beïnvloed word ondersoek, onder andere kontrakteervryheid, die leerstuk pacta servanda sunt en standaardkontrakte. Die Suid-Afrikaanse posisie word dan vergelyk met dié in Singapoer, ingevolge die Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA), en die Verenigde Koninkryk, ingevolge die Consumer Rights Act (CRA) om perspektief te kry op die studie, en ten einde die bepalings van artikel 14 objektief te oorweeg om vas te stel of Suid-Afrika kan kersopsteek by hierdie jurisdiksies. Laastens word voorstelle gemaak om die posisie van die verbruiker tot vastetermynkontrakte ingevolge die CPA te verbeter om beste gebruikspraktyke te implementeer, en te verseker dat die doelwitte van die CPA en internasionale verbruikersriglyne bereik word. Hierdie studie weerspieël die regsposisie soos op 18 Junie 2020 in bronne wat plaaslik beskikbaar is, asook in bronne aan my beskikbaar gestel deur die Nasionale Universiteit van Singapoer tydens ’n navorsingsbesoek daar.
Kule thesisi isimo sezinhlangano ezingaphansi kwesivumelwano sesikhathi esinqunyiwe, ngaphansi kwesigaba 14 koMthetho 68 ka 2008, uMthetho weZokuvikelwa koMthengi uhlaziywa ngendlela egxekayo. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo ukusungula ukuthi mhlawumbe lezi zinhlangano ezingaphansi kwesivumelwano sesikhathi esinqunyiwe sivikeleke kangcono ngaphansi kwesigaba 14 se-CPA uma kunesidingo sabathengi sokuqedwa kwesivumelwano esencike phezu kokwehluleka ukwenza umsebenzi waloyo ongumthumeli wempahla, okwehlukile emthethweni owejwayelekile. Okwesibili, le thesis iphenya ukuthi mhlawumbe isikhathi isikhathi esinde sesivumelwano sesikhathi esinqunyiwe kufanele sincishiswe ngokomthetho oshayiwe. Izinto ezahlukahlukene ezithinta lezi zivumelwano, njengesibonelo, inkululeko yokungena esivumelwaneni pacta servanda sunt, kanye nesivumelwano ezingaguquki, kuyizinto ezibhekwayo. Isimo seNingizimu Afrika siqhathaniswa nesimo sezwe laseSingapore ngaphansi koMthetho wezokuVikelwa kwabaThengi (Fair Trading), kanye nasezweni laseUnited Kingdom ngaphansi koMthetho owaMalungelo abaThengi, ukuthola umqondo kanye nokuhlola izimiso ngaphansi kwesigaba 14 soMthetho 68 ka 2008, uMthetho oVikela abaThengi ukuthola ukuthi ngabe iNingizimu Afrika kukhona ekuzuzile kwizifundo ezifundwe kulezi zakhiwo zemithetho. Okokugcina, izichibiyelo ezisuselwe kwimigomo mayelana nalokho okushiwo yi-CPA inconywe ukuthi yenze ngcono isimo sezinhlangano ezingaphansi kwezivumelwano zesikhathi esinqunyiwe ukuletha izisombululo ezingcono kanye nokuqinisekisa ukuthi kulandelwa izinhloso kanye nemisebenzi yoMthetho 68 ka 2008, okunguMthetho oVikela abaThengi kanye nemihlahlandlela yezizwe zomhlaba. Lolu cwaningo lususelwe phezu komthetho kusukela mhla zi 18 uNhlangulana 2020, luyatholakala emithonjeni yaseNingizimu Afrika, kanye nomthetho waseSingapore uyatholakala emthonjeni yedatha yaseNational University of Singapore.
Mercantile Law
LL. D.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Fire is currently recognized as one of the major natural hazards of the Mediterranean basin. In an average year the total burnt area in the whole basin is around 600,000 hectares, the product of approximately 50,000 fires. The estimated annual cost is around 775 million Euros (FAO 2001). Official data on casualties due to fires are often not available, but, for example, seventy-nine people have been killed directly by fire in Portugal since 1966 and fifty in Catalonia (northeast Spain) since 1970. Fire is commonly considered to be a key component of the dynamics of Mediterranean ecosystems (Chapters 7 and 23). Long dry periods, usually in summer, and vegetation assemblages that produce large amounts of standing branches and debris, are the main factors promoting the propagation of fires. These characteristics are common to other regions of the world with a similar climate and vegetation structure including California, central Chile, South Africa, and south-western Australia. Fire is a common occurrence and a significant natural hazard in all these regions. Although initially a natural phenomenon, during the course of the Holocene human activity has become an increasingly powerful driver of fires (Chapter 9). Prevention of wildfires is now one of the top priorities of the forestry and environmental agencies across the Mediterranean region because of the huge extent of the burned surface area, the high expenditure on both fire prevention and fire fighting, and the impacts in terms of both human life and property. The development of models to investigate the relative roles of extreme weather conditions and fire suppression policies in the generation of large fires is a key area of research (Piñol et al. 2007). The pattern of fire occurrence is not uniform across the Mediterranean basin and orders of magnitude differences appear. When standardized to the forested area of each country, the average burnt area exceeds 103 ha per 103 km2 per year in Greece, Israel, Italy, Algeria, Portugal, and Spain. This means that, on average, more than 1 per cent of the forested area is burnt in these countries each year.