Decriminalisation / Dekriminalisasie : caput 8

• Pages: 185-192
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC74112
• Published date: 01 January 2010
• Date: 01 January 2010

185

CAPUT 8

DECRIMINALISATION / DEKRIMINALISASIE

8.1 Decriminalisation of corporate activity / dekriminalisasie

van korporatiewe aktiwiteite

8.1.1 Introduction

More than two centuries ago, Charles Dickens1 stated:

[I]n England ... [d]aring burglaries by armed men, and highway

robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families

were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without remov-

ing their furniture to upholsterers’ warehouses for security; the

highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and,

being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman ...,

gallantly shot him through the head and rode away;. [M]usket-

eers went into St Giles’s to search for contraband goods, and

the mob f‌ired on the musketeers, and the musketeers f‌ired on

the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much

out of the common way. [A]ll these things, and a thousand like

them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one

thousand seven hundred and seventy-f‌ive.

Although the quotation is not necessarily applicable in all its gory

detail to the Southern Africa of today, there may be enough that is

relevant to cause at least an uncomfortable shiver of recognition.

In any event even the most casual observer of the Southern African

scene would be inclined to agree that Economic Crime is alive and

well and growing at an unprecedented rate. Also the purveyor of the

situation of corporate law in Southern Africa from the viewpoint of

effective remedies, competent enforcement of sanctions, regional

co-operation for the harmonisation of legislation and the implemen-

tation of carefully weighed proposals for proactive legal reform, would

be hard put upon to f‌ind more than small comfort for his or her inves-

tigative efforts. There are, however, some obvious exceptions to this

rather bleak picture.

The ambit of this paper is limited to a very brief overview of the regu-

lation of corporate activity in general and selected developments

in this f‌ield during the past decade. Some attention is given to the

importance of decriminalisation in this context as well. Present pur-

poses necessitate that this overview be limited to South Africa and

its immediate neighbours.

1 A Tale of Two Cities. Book the First. Recalled to Life. Chapter One:

The period.