Insolvency Law

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 10 March 2021
• Citation: 2019/2020 YSAL 700
• Pages: 700-712
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/YSAL/v1/i1a13
• Date: 10 March 2021
• Author: Evans, R.

700

1. INTRODUCTION

No legislation applying to insolvency has bee n promulgated recently.

The possibility of reform ing the Insolvency Act1 has bee n an ongoing

endeavour over the past three decades. Several Bills have been published

and commented on, but to date no concrete developments have resulted.2

* BLC LLB LLM LLD (Pret); Professor of Law, University of South Africa; Attorney of the

High Court of South Africa.

1 Act 24 of 1936 (the ‘Act’ or the ‘Insolvency Act’).

2 In 1999 the South African Law Commission (as it was then) published its second draft

Insolvency Bill and Explanatory Memorandum (Discussion Paper 86 vol 1 Project 63 Review

of the law of insolvency) and vol 2 Draft Insolvency Bill – officially published in 2000. The

previous draft Bill was published for comment in 1996 as the Review of the Law of Insolvency:

Draft Insolvency Bill and Explanatory Memorandum Working Paper 66, Project 63 (1996); and later

the South African Law Reform Commission Report on the review of the law of insolvency: Draft

Insolvency Bill and explanatory memorandum (Project 63) 2014. Available from Mr MB Cronje

(mcronje@justice.gov.za) at the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development,

Pretoria, South Africa. See, generally, also A Boraine and K van der Linde ‘The draft Insolvency

Bill – an exploration (part 1)’ 1998) TSAR 621; A Boraine and K van der Linde ‘The draft

Insolvency Bill – an exploration (part 2)’ (1999) TSAR 38; RG Evans, A Loubser and K van der

Linde ‘Aspects of the Draft Insolvency Bill’ (1999) SA Merc LJ 210; RG Evans A Critical Analysis

of Problem Areas in Respect of Assets of Insolvent Estates of Individuals (LLD thesis, University of

Pretoria 2008); RG Evans ‘The impact of the South African Constitution on selected problem

areas in respect of assets in insolvent estates’ (2010) 25 SA Public Law 698; RG Evans ‘Law

reform in respect of assets in insolvent estates in South Africa’ (2010) SA Merc LJ 465; J Calitz

A Reformatory Approach to State Regulation of Insolvency Law in South Africa (LLD thesis,

University of Pretoria 2009); M Roestoff and H Coetzee ‘Consumer debt relief in South Africa:

Lessons from America and England, and suggestions for the way forward’ (2012) SA Merc LJ 53;

L Steyn Statutory Regulation of Forced Sale of the Home in South Africa (LLD thesis, University of

Pretoria 2012); A Boraine and M Roestoff ‘Revisiting the state of consumer insolvency in South

Africa after twenty years: The courts’ approach, international guidelines and an appeal for

urgent law reform’ (2014) 1 THRHR 351; A Boraine and R Evans ‘The law of insolvency and

the Bill of Rights’ in Y Mokgoro and P Tlakula (eds) Bill of Rights Compendium (2014 update);

PH Meskin Insolvency Law and Its Operation in Winding Up (2014 update) 1990; H Coetzee

A Comparative Reappraisal of Debt Relief Measures for Natural Person Debtors In South Africa

(LLD thesis, University of Pretoria 2015).

Insolvency lawInsolvency law

Roger Evans*

2019/2020 YSAL 700

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