I cannot believe that we are already 4 months into 2024!! The year is flying past and from what I hear, things are busy on the ground!

Before I run through what we at SARIPA have been up to so far this year, I wanted to emphasise the scope and objectives of the organisation.

We should always remember that SARIPA is an organisation that was set up to look after the needs, interests and aspirations of our members, all of whom practice (or have an interest in) the "restructuring, business rescue and insolvency profession."

At SARIPA, we remain a very focused organisation that covers the needs and expectations of restructuring, business rescue and insolvency professionals and the stakeholders that "play in this space".

These areas of focus are all inextricably linked. One cannot practice in this area of speciality without being in touch with and understanding the mechanics and tools of restructuring companies in distress. This includes the informal restructuring process (the solvent restructuring), the makeup and mechanism of the section 155 compromise procedure, all of the business rescue mechanisms and workings of Chapter 6 of the Companies Act, and the intricacies and machinery of the insolvency process.

SARIPA believes that a working knowledge of all three of these disciplines is essential in developing and enhancing one's practice and career.

SARIPA does not favour any one of these three disciplines but rather tries to ensure that restructuring, business rescue and insolvency matters are all covered and dealt with at our events, webinars, our website materials and at our conferences (regional and annual).

So please keep this in mind when you are looking to ask questions of us, when you make contributions on areas of law (case law precedent), or make submissions on what concerns you in practice. We welcome contributions from members at every level and in particular where you believe that SARIPA, as an organisation, can assist with or take our interaction with the Regulator, and any other relevant party, one step further.

Now let me bring you up to speed with what has been keeping us busy.

So far in 2024, SARIPA has been extremely busy with a myriad of events, webinars, seminars, networking events and conferences. In addition, we continue to provide a bespoke and focused service to our members most importantly by providing our members with very important updates on various issues which include issues relevant to our Regulators - the Masters Office, CIPC, SARS and with ongoing interaction with the Minister of Justice. These updates remain of paramount importance. Often, things move rapidly, and SARIPA has always managed to keep our members up to date and at the cutting edge of practice.

Information relevant to insolvency, restructuring and business rescue practice remains front of mind for SARIPA and we are committed to providing our members with focused and up-to-date information where we "push" this to our members with weekly updates and where much of this content is also available on our website.

Most importantly, a thanks goes out to our SARIPA members, who consistently, on an almost weekly basis, provide us with input on new cases and court precedent which we in turn bring to the attention of our members.

So knowledge is king, and being a SARIPA member provides us with a distinct advantage in being able to have access to all of this information which makes practice and providing up-to-date information to our clients, all that much easier.

A report back on some recent events held so far in 2024:

I want to briefly highlight a few things that we have been up to so far this year -

Events that have happened this year:

We have had a number of successful events and webinars for 2024 already. These include -

1. Our first workshop for our Mentorship Programme 2024 was held at the offices of Deloitte on 17th January 2024.
2. We released our three-part training videos on the topic "Is Part A of the definition of BR (return to solvency) a myth or reality…the debate rages on!!" We heard from the leading BRPs on this topic over a three-part series. If you missed these they are still available on our website.
3. We had a "SARS Engagement" webinar on 7th March 2024.
4. We had a Young Bloods panel discussion in Pretoria on the topic of Business Rescue vs Liquidation.
5. WC Young Bloods Quiz Night was held on 17 April in Cape Town.
6. The Northern Regional Conference was held at Fluxmans on Friday 26th April and was attended by 200 of our members (in person and online).

Upcoming events (to look forward to and to place in the diary)

1. We also have some exciting webinars coming up in May and throughout the year. Please check the SARIPA website for all the details and registration information.
2. The Western Cape region conference is on the 6th of June 2024, details to follow.
3. The Eastern Cape region conference is on the 4^th of July, details to follow.
4. We have a Young Bloods/ IWIRC Woman's Day Celebration on Friday 2 August 2024 which will be held at the offices of CDH.
5. The next Northern Region full-day conference will be happening in August 2024 (2nd one for the year).
6. Young Bloods will be having a social in Parkhurst in September.
7. IWIRC has an exciting list of events starting with a virtual book club in May.

For any further information regarding the upcoming events for 2024, please check the SARIPA website or contact the office.

INSOL/SARIPA Insolvency and Business Rescue Course - 2024

In the early part of 2024, we launched our INSOL/SARIPA insolvency course as well as our business rescue course (for 2024).

The courses have a well-balanced approach between theory and practice and cover all aspects of insolvency and business rescue. The courses are not only aimed at South Africans but are also available to persons from outside South Africa. We have several African students join the programme. These courses are highly practical and are run by our senior members, offering a unique insight into how senior members of the profession practice and apply mechanisms for restructuring, rescue and insolvency.

In 2024, we have 25 registered participants for the Insolvency Course and 29 registered for the Business Rescue Course - 54 in total.

If there are any interested potential candidates who wish to enrol for next year's courses, that is the 2025 insolvency or business rescue practice courses, details will be on the SARIPA website soon. One should also note that bursaries will be available to young members for these courses.

So get involved and get the INSOL/SARIPA international qualification onto that CV!!

Update on Mentorship Programme - 2024

Our SARIPA mentorship programme is ongoing and interaction continues between our various mentors and mentees. I attended the launch of the mentorship programme at Deloitte earlier this year and to see the interaction between mentors (represented by some very senior members of the profession) and the young (very enthusiastic) mentees was very exciting. Clearly, the benefits of younger members becoming involved in the mentorship programme are enormous and where the programme can assist young practitioners at various levels and in their development of their careers.

SARIPA will be announcing the start of our 2025 mentorship programme (later in the year), so if you are interested or you know of someone at your office who might be interested, please make contact with Rene/ Angela at the SARIPA office by email.

AFSA/SARIPA Dispute Resolution report back

AFSA and SARIPA jointly launched their AFSA/SARIPA Business Rescue Division in 2023 - which brings the AFSA/SARIPA dispute resolution process to the business rescue process in South Africa. The objective is to ensure that the AFSA/SARIPA model clause for business rescue plans will be inserted in BR plans. The envisaged clause incorporates a very expedited, well-run and effective way to resolve disputes arising in connection with business rescue. All these disputes are allocated/referred to experienced arbitrators, well versed in commercial disputes, and where an expedited dispute resolution process is available to parties.

In 2024, we have already had quite a few disputes referred to the platform. We are looking forward to seeing more and more parties making use of the platform so that disputes can be resolved as expeditiously as possible. There is no doubt that the AFSA dispute resolution platform will assist companies in the dispute resolution process in business rescues in the future and will reduce many such disputes ending up in Court (which is both costly and very time-consuming).

Interaction with the Minister of Justice

We have also enquired from the Minister as to the status of the launch and dissemination of the draft Insolvency Bill and the draft Policy on the Appointment of Insolvency Practitioners. We have at last had some traction with this engagement and Rene Bekker has been approached to attend a meeting with senior members of the Department of Justice. Rene will be providing our members with feedback after such meetings.

Master's Office update - Digitizing the Insolvency Section

Rene also recently met with the newly appointed Acting Chief Master, Adv. Mathibe, and she informed us that the Department of Justice is intent on digitizing the Insolvency Section, similar to what has happened at the online Deceased Estates department.

We will be working closely with the Master in identifying the workflow and the scope of the project

SARIPA Membership numbers

Our SARIPA membership numbers are currently at 745 and our Young Blood membership is at 228 - which confirms that SARIPA continues to grow as we work together to achieve our goals.

We remain an organisation with a large and meaningful presence in SA and with a significant number of new members joining us each month.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL

Looking at the umbrella organisation, namely INSOL International, we continue to be very much part of INSOL and SARIPA remains influential on the world stage. INSOL is the largest insolvency and restructuring organisation in the world and covers over 70 jurisdictions with approximately 12000 members. SARIPA is the 5th largest member organisation of INSOL in the world.

So, we certainly punch well above our weight on the international stage.

INSOL FUTURE LEADERS

Off the back of the SARIPA Young Bloods, INSOL launched the INSOL Future Leaders Programme in 2023, and we have already had several events in South Africa. In 2024, we have 20 South Africans participating in INSOL Future Leaders. The INSOL Future Leaders programme was the brainchild of SARIPA (with thanks to Chris Rey) and it has now rolled out into 25 countries across the globe. Something we can certainly be very proud of!

The Future Leaders will continue to have events in 2024 with a further 3 countries in Africa being added, namely Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, who along with Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda all participate actively in the initiative.

INSOL ART - BOTSWANA - 7 to 8 November 2024

The INSOL Africa Round Table (ART) Conference will take place this year in Gaborone, Botswana.

The INSOL ART conference provides all delegates with the unique opportunity to learn about what is going on in the different African jurisdictions as well as be able to network and meet colleagues from around the African continent and from South Africa. So if you can, join in, Botswana is a very short flight away!

The INSOL Africa Advisory Council (AAC)

The Africa Advisory Council is up and running and where we have made progress in getting new INSOL African Member Organisations to join the initiative. AAC members from all 12 member countries are committed to increasing the levels of cross-border communication and continued interaction on the continent in this area of practice.

What is interesting is that many brand new African Member Organisations (recently formed or which are about to be launched) want us, as SARIPA, to guide them on all aspects of set-up of their local organisation, educational programmes, training programmes and mentorship programmes and provide advice on how we put together our conferences.

I will be travelling to Ghana later in the year to meet with our sister organisation GARIA, where I intend to engage and workshop with their members (at their invitation) on what we do in South Africa, and where they are looking to develop GARIA along similar lines. So continued engagement is the key and where we are hoping that many more member organisations like SARIPA are set up across the continent!

INSOL SAN DIEGO, USA - Annual Conference - 22 to 24 May 2024

INSOL will be having its annual conference in San Diego USA in May.

We are not sure yet as to how many South Africans are attending, but INSOL is expecting approximately 700 delegates from around the world to attend. Rene and I will be attending, so we will be providing a report to SARIPA upon our return.

Coming up in - 2024

As I mentioned earlier, we have some exciting events and webinars coming up this year and announcements will be made - also please visit the SARIPA website for further details about all the events and webinars happening this year.

OUR MAIN EVENT OF THE YEAR - Our SARIPA Annual Conference for 2024 will be happening from 30 October 2024 to 1 November 2024 at Sibaya in KZN. A save-the-date has already been sent out by SARIPA.

Our technical committee is hard at work putting together a fresh and bespoke programme that is going to blow your socks off!! More information will be made available later in the year, so watch out for that!

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 you want to become a sponsor, please contact Angela at the SARIPA office.

There will be a Golf day and an alternate event hosted by SARIPA, with lots of surprises and other activities that you can always expect from a SARIPA annual conference!

So again, lots to look forward to in 2024!

I wish all of our SARIPA members a busy year ahead and I hope that you all participate in all of what SARIPA has to offer!

All the best to you.

Warm regards,
Dr Eric Levenstein
SARIPA Chairperson