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CDH welcomes Eben Smit as a Director in the Corporate & Commercial practice

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH), a leading corporate and commercial law firm, is pleased to announce the appointment of Eben Smit as a Director in the Corporate & Commercial practice, effective 1 November 2025. Eben’s focus will be on financial services and insurance regulatory matters. He brings over 13 years of extensive legal experience in the corporate and financial services sector and has a proven track record working alongside CDH on transactional, company law, competition, and tax matters.

Webinar Recording | Unpacking the Finance Act 2025: game-changer or business as usual?

Language, tradition and risk: Why legal doublets refuse to die

In 1066, William the Conqueror of Normandy defeated King Harold of England. English legal scribes then began pairing Anglo-Saxon terms with Latin or Norman French equivalents. Despite the merger of the underlying legal concepts, 1,000 year-old doublets like “ will and testament ” and “ cease and desist ” survive in modern legal documents through a combination of history, risk aversion, and ritual. These phrases have circulated through courts, statutes, and other legal documents for centuries. Judges have progressively stripped them of ambiguity, and they have developed settled legal meanings. Lawyers, notoriously risk-averse, prefer something known over a modern plain language alternative. 

Clarity around the taxation of carbon credits in Kenya

Alex Kanyi, Partner in Tax & Exchange Control practice, and Clarice Wambua, Consultant in Environmental Law practice, were recently featured in The Star, where they unpacked the lack of clarity around the taxation of carbon credits in Kenya.

Rule 56, default cures and fairness: SCA confirms substance over procedure in tax disputes

In Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service v Virgin Mobile South Africa (Pty) Ltd ZASCA 77 (4 June 2025), the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) delivered important guidance on the procedural interplay between Rule 56 of the Tax Court Rules (Rules) and the requirement for condonation under Rule 52. This ruling provides important clarity on how late filings should be approached, particularly where the defaulting party acts within the grace period afforded under Rule 56.

When is calling someone a “racist” a fair reason for dismissal?

In the recent judgment of Commercial Stevedoring Agricultural and Allied Workers Union obo Vuyani Qomoyi v CCMA and Others (CA18/2024) ZALAC 15 (8 April 2026), the Labour Appeal Court (LAC) provided clarity on the sensitive and complex issue of racial accusations in the workplace. The LAC unpacked the central legal question: under what circumstances does an employee, in response to a perceived injustice, calling a manager a “ white racist ” constitute dismissible misconduct? The judgment establishes that context, power dynamics, and societal history are paramount, and that such an utterance is not, in and of itself, racist behaviour.