Who Owns Whom

The global fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist funding activities has seen the obligation to ‘know your client’ become an inexorable international trend, which has been brought even closer to home with the Gupta, VBS, Steinhoff and Bosasa delinquencies.

To bring South Africa in line with international efforts and to meet our commitments to the G20 in this regard, government promulgated The Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) of 2001 (amended in 2017) to create the Financial Intelligence Centre, which has become one of the most effective institutions fighting corruption and crime in our society.

Fica places the obligation on a wide range of professions and financial services companies to ‘know your client’, particularly with regard to who owns them.

While section 26 of the Companies Act gives any member of the public the right to request the share register of a private company, the practicalities of accessing  this information tend to defeat the intention.

In 2013 Moneyweb journalist Julius Cobbett requested the share register of Nova Property Group Holdings, which was involved in the Sharemax property syndication. Nova refused to provide it, and the matter went all way to the Constitutional Court which, in 2016, dismissed Nova’s appeal against the Supreme Court ruling against it, settling once and for all the principle that any person has an unqualified right to access the securities register of any company.

However, while the right is there, the process to uplift this information is onerous. WOW, amaBhungane and the Helen Suzman Foundation have, for the last two years, been petitioning the Department of Trade and Industry to introduce legislation into the Companies Amendment Act which will obligate private companies to list beneficial shareholders on CIPC, as is currently the case with directors. We hope that we are being heard.

Fica does state that outside sources may be used to verify data, and WOW has accumulated, over 39 years, ownership information on 180,000 companies. WOWEB users are increasingly using this information for know your client purposes.

Contact us to access WOW's quality research on African industries and business

Contact Us

Most Popular Articles

Information and communicationSouth Africa

The rapid transformation of household internet access in South Africa

Read more

Electricity gas steam and air conditioning supplySouth Africa

Can Independent power producers turn the tide in electricity generation for South Africa?

Read more

South AfricaWholesale and retail trade repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles

How South Africa’s Local Footwear Brands Are Winning the Digital Race

Read more

Related Articles

BlogCountries Other service activitiesSouth Africa

The Transformative role of research companies in South Africa

Contents [hide] The impact of research on innovation, productivity, and societal progress has been profound – from groundbreaking inventions shaping the 21st century to the challenges faced by professional research...

BlogCountries Other service activitiesSouth Africa

How South African women are breaking the glass ceiling in business

Key Points On the sport scene History of women in business Status of South African women in business Importance of appointing women in leadership positions Women in private sector leadership...

BlogCountries Other service activitiesSouth Africa

Consulting Engineering Activities in South Africa

Engineering Consulting: The hidden gem in many a great infrastructure Contents [hide] The Status of Consulting Engineering in South Africa The Value of Consulting Engineering to an Economy Consulting Engineering’s...