Impact Of Legislation On Community Based Management Of Water For Informal Irrigation In Southern Africa: Case Studies of Zimbabwe and Tanzania

This paper analyses the impacts of water and environmental laws on informal irrigation farming in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. It explores how legal frameworks in Zimbabwe and Tanzania have for years hindered the development of community-based management of water for informal irrigation purposes. This is illustrated in the article by a detailed analysis of water and the environmental legislations of Zimbabwe and Tanzania. The actor-oriented approach theoretical framework guides the analysis of the data presented in this article. The case studies of Zimbabwe and Tanzania serve to illustrate that legislation in the Southern African region has yet to reach a point where it promotes sound community-based management of water for informal irrigation farming. It is also not clear how new water acts, such as the one introduced in Zimbabwe in 1998, will promote community-based management of water among informal irrigators. Given this scenario of legislation that does not promote community based management of water by informal irrigators, the participants in this economic activity have resorted to ignoring legal provisions and have, in most cases, developed their own local rules and regulations that govern management of water resources in their localities. This article contends that it is time governments in Southern Africa accepted informal irrigation and enacted laws that encourage the sustainable management of water by the local communities. Enacting laws that impede informal irrigation, as is the current situation, will sideline local communities from taking an active role in managing natural resources

The auditor's duty of reasonable care and skill and the expectation to detect fraud

Auditors perform a very important task within the context of the affairs of a company because financial reporting can only serve its purpose if stakeholders can rely on its accuracy and reliability. An auditor’s duty is to opine whether an entity’s financial reporting has been done according to the requirements of the law. The responsibility of reporting according to the law lies with an entity’s directors. Auditors cannot issue an absolute assurance as to the lawfulness and reliability of an entity’s financial reporting. However when it is subsequently discovered that the financial reporting was incorrect and that fraud has occurred auditors are often blamed and sued for enormous amounts of money for failing to detect material anomalies in the financial reports. These actions are based on the fact that auditors have a duty to exercise reasonable care and skill in the performance of their duties and through their failure to act as such, have caused financial harm to the clients or third parties. The fact that auditors are only required by law to exercise reasonable care and skill and perform an audit according to the standards of the reasonable auditor and not the most meticulous one, is often not regarded or is sometimes deliberately ignored. This clearly represents a problem in our law, namely that the presence of fraud in financial reports does not in itself suggest negligence on the part of the auditor but is apparently often perceived to do so. This research shows that the auditor’s duty of reasonable care and skill does not necessarily entail the duty to detect fraud. The elements of the duty of reasonable care and skill are identified from case law, legislation and international auditing standards. In order to limit the liability of auditors in general it is important to focus also on the elements of fault (negligence), wrongfulness and causation. This research shows that negligence cannot be established merely by the presence of fraud or material misstatements in financial statements. The responsibility for fair financial reporting lies with the directors. This research gives prominence to this fact which often seems to be ignored for convenience and in order to place the blame on the auditors. This research implicitly asks the question, why are auditors being held responsible for material misstatements in a company’s financial statements and not the directors? Guidelines for determining the extent of an auditor’s liability in this regard are formulated in this research

Towards social change: South African university students as social entrepreneurs

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Economically justifying the limitation of the right to strike in the mining industry.

Master of Law in Labor Law. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.Abstract not availabl

Factors that limit the efficacy of general anti-avoidance rules in income tax legislation : lessons from South Africa, Australia, and Canada

General anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) are rules in income tax legislation intended to curtail impermissible tax avoidance. GAARs have another critical function, namely informing taxpayers of the limits of permissible tax avoidance. A GAAR is therefore an important provision which must be effective. A study of the historical and current experience with GAARs in South Africa, Canada, and Australia, however, shows that the efficacy of GAARs is limited. The GAARs of the countries studied show some similarities but also some fundamental differences. In spite of these differences, certain common factors working against the efficacy of these GAARs can be identified. It is argued that these factors entail the inherent weakness of GAARs, controversial indicators of impermissible tax avoidance, uncertainty, the role of the judiciary, taxpayer aggression, and the limitations of the law as a weapon against impermissible tax avoidance. Admittedly, some of these limiting factors are difficult to overcome. For instance, a precise definition of impermissible tax avoidance has proved elusive and this status quo is likely to persist. Nevertheless, it is argued that these factors need to be acknowledged and addressed in order to create more effective GAARs in future.http://content.ajarchive.org/cdm4/index_00104051.php?CISOROOT=/00104051http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/cilsaam2016Mercantile La

The UK general anti abuse rule : lessons for Australia?

Australia and the UK have general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) in their respective income tax legislation. The UK GAAR is relatively new, while the Australian GAAR, bar a number of amendments over the years, was introduced in 1981. This article comparatively analyses these two GAARs with a view to determining whether certain aspects of the UK GAAR provide lessons for certain perennially controversial aspects of the Australian GAAR. In this regard, this article particularly focuses on the way these two GAARs define an arrangement or a scheme, identify a tax benefit and target impermissible or abusive tax avoidance, before concluding with the lessons that can be learned from the UK GAAR.https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/research/publications/atax-journalam2017Mercantile La

Analysis of misuse and abuse in terms of the South African general anti-avoidance rule : lessons from Canada

In terms of the South African general anti-avoidance rule, a transaction that misuses or abuses the provisions of the Income Tax Act may be disregarded for tax purposes. The misuse or abuse provision, along with the general antiavoidance rule (GAAR), has not yet been judicially considered. It is argued that the provision brings further uncertainty and breadth to the general antiavoidance rule. It calls for a purposive interpretation of tax legislation. This approach, however, creates uncertainty regarding the determination of purpose. In Canada, from which the provision was borrowed, the courts initially applied a policy approach in determining purpose but this disadvantaged the revenue authorities in a series of cases. The Minister of National Revenue was required to present a clear and unambiguous policy which in reality could not be found. The thrust of this article is to show that the misuse or abuse concept could turn out to be a lateral development in the South African GAAR because of the uncertainty it carries and if lessons on its application are not learned from the Canadian experience.http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=1348

The economic substance doctrine against abusive tax shelters in the United States : lessons for South Africa

The avoidance of income tax is a practice that is common in tax systems across the whole world. As Jensen notes, '[n]othing is certain but death and taxes? Not true. If taxes are certain, then so too are tax avoidance, tax evasion, and governmental efforts to contain the avoidance and evasion'. Being an inevitable concomitant of tax, tax avoidance, if left unchecked, can result in the substantial erosion of tax bases. A common way of controlling tax avoidance is introducing legislation that regulates the limits of permissible tax avoidance and targets impermissible tax avoidance. This legislation comes in the form of general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) or specific anti-avoidance rules. The term GAAR means that the rule is broad and is a weapon against all forms of impermissible tax avoidance, which differentiates it from specific anti-avoidance rules, which are only applicable to specific forms of impermissible tax avoidance. In countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom (up until July 2013 when a GAAR was introduced) and the Netherlands (where both a GAAR and judicial doctrines are in place), reliance is placed on judicially created doctrines against impermissible tax avoidance. These judicial anti-avoidance doctrines function as GAARs because they serve a general anti-avoidance purpose and apply to all forms of impermissible tax avoidance.http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/ju_samljam201

A restrospective study of the nutritional status of primary school children in Harare

Malnourished children may grow up to become adults with reduced physical and cognitive capacity. Knowledge of trends of children’s nutritional status over time is important to raise awareness, guide resource allocation as well as develop nutrition-related interventions for communities. A retrospective study was conducted in Harare using data collected and compiled by the Harare City Council Nutrition Unit. Trends of nutritional status of primary school children in high density areas of Harare were examined in relation to stunting and wasting. All anthropometric data generated from 2003 to 2011 by the Harare Nutrition Unit were analysed. Age was calculated by subtracting the date of birth from the date of interview. The Z-scores for height-for-age (HAZ), and weight-for-height (WHZ) were calculated using the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) standards. Children with HAZ and WHZ less than -2 SD from the median reference population were considered stunted and wasted, respectively. The least squares method was used to determine the strength of outcome change measures over time. A decrease in stunting was observed from a prevalence of 10.2% to 7.4% over the period 2003 to 2011 in males (R2 = 0.13), and from 7.8% to 4.4% in females (R2 = 0.29) over the same period. Wasting in both males and females was on a slower decrease starting only from the year 2007 to 2009 (R2 = 0.11) for males and (R2 = 0.05) for females. There has been an increase in wasting in recent years from 2009 to 2011 in males (2.7-4.6%) and females (3.1-3.6%). More males among primary school children are both wasted and stunted than females. The results demonstrate a decreasing prevalence in stunting in primary school children but there is an increase in prevalence of wasting in primary school children. Interventions to curb the rise in wasting in primary school children in Harare’s high density areas are warranted such as resuscitation of school nutrition gardens, school feeding program and health education.Key words: stunting, wasting, malnutrition, children, Zimbabw

The Role of the Labour Court in Collective Bargaining: Altering the Protected Status of Strikes on Grounds of Violence in National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers v Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd (2016) 37 ILJ 476 (LC)

This note explores the powers of the Labour Court as envisaged in the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA), where a protected strike disintegrates into violent riotous conduct. The legal status of protected strikes raises important questions of law, namely: whether the Labour Court has the authority to alter the legal status of a strike; the autonomy of collective bargaining; and the legal test which the Labour Court should apply when intervening. The court in National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers v Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd 2016 37 ILJ 476 (LC) dealt with this precise problem. There can be no doubt that South Africa is plagued by widespread strike violence which often occur during protected strikes. However, this contribution poses the question whether the Labour Court has not overstepped its mandated jurisdiction and it questions whether such alterations of the status of strikes would have a positive effect on the institution of collective bargaining.     &nbsp