Chairperson's Message
08 August 2023
Hello to all SARIPA members,
I wanted to briefly give you a mid-year update as to where we are as an organisation right now.
I must say that I cannot believe that we are already almost 8 months into 2023!! Notwithstanding a very cold, wet and unpleasant winter, September and Spring are just around the corner and are something to look forward to.
SARIPA has been extremely busy in the last few months. SARIPA continues to provide a bespoke and focused service to our members, including presenting several extremely interesting and well-attended webinars, as well as a number of Regional conferences and events that have taken place this year.
Most importantly, we have consistently provided our members with very important updates on various issues relevant to insolvency and business rescue practice, including the latest case law, and have reported on issues relevant to the Masters' Office, CIPC, SARS and where we also have ongoing interaction with the Minister of Justice. These updates remain of paramount importance and keep members fully appraised of what is going on in the insolvency and rescue profession.
Information relevant to insolvency, restructuring and business rescue practice remains front of mind for SARIPA, and additional information and content is available on our website.
Most importantly - thanks to our members being consistently on the ball on an almost weekly basis, our SARIPA members consistently bring new cases and court precedent to our attention for publication purposes. So, knowledge is king, and we continue to push as much of this information as possible to our members!!
So, it must be said that these added benefits (high level of information flow) enable our members to be on top of their game when it comes to insolvency and rescue practice.
There have been many noteworthy achievements and deliverables achieved by SARIPA and its board over the course of 2023. From the up-and-running Mentorship Programme; to the establishment of our new Central Region in the Northern Cape, Free State and Lesotho; to the setup of a bespoke set of dispute resolution business rescue rules with the Arbitration Foundation of SA, to the launch of our brand new INSOL/SARIPA Business Rescue course, certainly a lot has been achieved this year.
Ongoing liaison and interaction between SARIPA and the major SA Lenders/Financial Institutions, SARS, Trade Unions, the Master and with CIPC remain ongoing.
SARIPA members nationwide now exceed 700 members, and we remain the 5th largest member association of INSOL International - a fact that we can be proud of indeed.
A Report Back on Recent and Upcoming Events for 2023
We have had some successful events and webinars for 2023 already. Events have included Regional Conferences (in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Region and in KZN), Young Blood networking events and seminars, and 6 extremely well-attended webinars covering a wide range of insolvency, restructuring and business rescue issues. A full list of these events and webinars is attached to this report.
Just a heads up - we have an excellent webinar coming up on 17 August - titled - "Resolving practical issues in BR- is it 90% business and 10% law?". The second Northern Region conference for the year is also coming up on 30 August 2023 and an IWIRC webinar on 24 August 2023. So, lots to look forward to in the second half of the year.
Please visit the SARIPA website for further details about all the events and webinars happening this year.
INSOL/SARIPA Business Rescue Course
In the early part of 2023, we launched our INSOL/SARIPA business rescue course.
This is a brand-new course that is being presented for the first time in 2023. The course has a well-balanced approach between theory and practice and covers all aspects of business rescue. The course is not only aimed at South Africans but is also available to persons from outside South Africa. We have had some Namibian students join the programme.
We have 34 registered participants and there have been 8 sessions held so far this year. Please note that registrations for 2024 will open on 1 October 2023 for the 2024 course. Do not miss out and please spread the word about this course to members of your respective firms and organisations.
Our INSOL/SARIPA Programme for Insolvency practice for 2023 also started earlier in the year and we have 35 registered participants.
One must appreciate that both these courses carry an international accreditation, namely that of INSOL International.
If any interested potential candidates wish to enrol for the 2024 business rescue or insolvency practice courses, please visit the SARIPA website for further details.
Update on Mentorship Programme
Our SARIPA mentorship programme is ongoing, and interaction continues between our various senior mentors and mentees. The benefits of younger members becoming involved in the mentorship programme are enormous and can really assist young practitioners at various levels and in their development in the profession. Again, if members of your firm want to join the mentorship programme, please make contact with us at SARIPA.
AFSA/SARIPA Report Back
AFSA and SARIPA jointly launched their joint AFSA/SARIPA Business Rescue Division earlier in the year and which brings the AFSA/SARIPA dispute resolution process to the business rescue mechanism in South Africa. The objective is to ensure that the AFSA/SARIPA model clause for dispute resolution will be incorporated in business rescue plans. The envisaged clause incorporates a very expedited, well-run, and effective dispute resolution mechanism (run by AFSA in conjunction with SARIPA) which deals with disputes arising in business rescue matters. Issues such as claim disputes, allocation of voting percentages, contractual disputes, rankings of claims and other issues can all now be resolved by way of this standard business rescue dispute forum. AFSA has now officially opened an AFSA Business Rescue Division focused on the implementation of this initiative. We have already seen the dispute resolution clause being incorporated in various live business rescue plans, so the mechanism is certainly being taken on board by our business rescue practitioners.
We are looking forward to seeing how this platform will assist companies in the dispute resolution process in business rescues in the future.
Ongoing Interaction with the Minister of Justice
We have made numerous enquiries with the Minister as to the status of the launch and dissemination of the draft Insolvency Bill and the Policy on appointing Insolvency Practitioners. There has been no response or feedback to date. We are still working on this and are trying to get some indication of when we can expect this very important bill.
As they say, be careful what you wish for. Once the new Bill lands, it will fundamentally change the way we practice and all of us will have to get up to speed with the new legislation.
SARIPA Membership Numbers and Young Bloods
Our SARIPA membership numbers are currently at 726 and our Young Blood national membership is at 194 - which confirms that SARIPA continues to grow as we work together to achieve our goals.
Off the back of the SARIPA Young Bloods initiative, INSOL (with the assistance of Chris Rey) launched the INSOL Future Leaders Programme in 2023 and various events have been held and with more to take place later in the year. So SARIPA again sets the bar with our Young Blood initiative having now been launched, having its own identity at INSOL!! If you are interested in this initiative, please contact Chris Rey at BDO.
OUR MAIN HIGHLIGHT EVENT OF THE YEAR
SARIPA Annual Conference Sun City, 2-3 November (slightly earlier this year)
Our SARIPA Annual Conference for 2023 is happening from 2-3 November 2023 at Sun City. We had a great webinar earlier in the year where we invited our members to share conference content/ideas that we could consider for this year's conference. and where we obtained significant input from SARIPA members and where they made excellent suggestions on conference content for Sun City.
Some great ideas/ suggestions were forthcoming, and the conference /technical committee are now hard at work preparing for the conference.
Please register early as we will only have space for a limited number of delegates.
Please note that there are some excellent sponsorship opportunities and if your firm wants to become a sponsor, please contact Angela at the SARIPA office. The theme for this year's conference is "Powering Up" ... so we will have some new faces, brand new content and some cutting-edge and important discussions relevant to the state of the insolvency and business rescue profession in South Africa. As always, it will be a massive opportunity to network with SARIPA members from across South Africa.
There will be many activities and you can all expect a massive beach party at the Valley of the Waves on Thursday evening and with a possible surfing exhibition by some senior SARIPA members (ex-Durban surfers) wearing speedos - …. certainly not to be missed!!
I must pause to sincerely thank Rene Bekker our COO, Angela and Wiida from SARIPA National Office, Haroon Laher my Vice Chair, and the entire SARIPA board for the efforts that have been made in progressing all these ongoing workstreams in 2023.
I wish all of you a great second half to 2023 and remember …."The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts" (Marcus Aurelius). Have a good one.
Hope to see you all soon.
Warm regards,
Dr Eric Levenstein
SARIPA Chairperson
