A lot of our members based in South Africa have been inquiring about company registrations. We welcome the need to register your companies, great move that will benefit you in the long run. Banks or funders generally prefer to work with  registered companies. So if you are looking forward to growth then consider becoming professional and registering your company. An extra advantage is that one can now do the registration online!

Below we feature an article compiled by the Entrepreneur Magazine and share it with our South African members or Zimbabweans in South Africa interested in registering their businesses.

Since 1 May 2011, the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) ceased to exist and was replaced by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). The New Companies Act came into being at the same time, changing the way business owners register their companies.

The Act stipulates that no new close corporations (CC) can be registered, but those registered prior to 1 May can continue to operate as CCs.

Registering your company

The Companies Act provides for two categories of companies, namely non-profit and profit companies. Each of the different business entities under these categories has specific requirements in terms of the documentation that is required.

1Types of entities

Non-profit companies:

• A company incorporated for public benefit or another object relating to one or more cultural or social activities, or communal or group interests.
• The income and property are not distributable to its incorporators, members, directors, officers or persons related to any of them.

Profit companies:

• Profit companies are categorised as companies without restrictions on the transferability of their shares and that do not prohibit offers to the public (larger public companies), and companies that do contain restrictions on the transferability of their shares and that prohibit offers to the public (smaller private companies).
• They may take one of four different forms: a personal liability company, a state-owned company, a public company and a private company.

Personal liability companies:

• The directors and past directors are jointly liable with the company for any debts and liabilities arising during their periods in office.
• The company name ends with the word ‘incorporated’.

State-owned companies:

• This is a company defined as a ‘state-owned enterprise’ or a company owned by a municipality.
• The names of a state-owned company must end with the expression ‘SOE Ltd’

Public companies:

• The definition of a public company is largely unchanged.
• The only difference is that a public company now only requires one member for incorporation compared to seven members in the past.

Private companies:

• While comparable to private companies under the old Act, these are similar to previous close corporations.
• Some of the changes made to private companies include fewer disclosure and transparency requirements, no longer being limited to 50 shareholders, and a board that must comprise at least one director.
• The name of a private company must end with the expression ‘Proprietary Limited’ or ‘(Pty) Ltd’.

2Documentation

A company is incorporated by the lodging of a Notice of Incorporation (CoR 14.1) and Memorandum of Incorporation (CoR 15.1 A-E). These forms are available for download from the CIPC’s website.

Memorandum of Incorporation:

The Memorandum of Incorporation (MoI) contains the following information:

1. Details of incorporators
2. Number of directors or alternate directors
3. Share capital (maximum issued)

Notice of Incorporation:

The Notice of Incorporation, which is lodged with the MoI, contains the following information:

1. Type of company
2. Incorporation date
3. Financial year-end
4. Registered address (main office)
5. Number of directors
6. Company name
7. Whether the company name will be the registration number
8. The reserved name and reservation number
9. List of four names to be checked by the Commission

Supporting Documents:

To register a private company you will complete either a CoR 15.1A (for a standard private company) or a CoR 15.1B (for a customised private company) and a CoR 14.1. The supporting documents required include:

• Certified ID copies of all indicated initial directors and incorporators
• Certified ID copy of applicant if not the same as one of the indicated initial directors or incorporators
• If an incorporator is a juristic person, a power of attorney is required for the representative authorised to incorporate the company and sign all related documents
• If another person incorporates the company and signs all related documents on behalf of any of the incorporators and initial directors, a power of attorney and certified ID copy of the person is required
• If a name was reserved before filing of incorporation documents, a valid name reservation document is necessary

Fees: The basic filing fee is R175. According to Elsabie Conradie, head: Communication, marketing and stakeholder relations for CIPC, a private company can be registered within one day if the company registers without reserving a name first.

3Register online

The CIPC’s website allows business owners to register their companies online. Once you are ± registered as a CIPC customer you will be able to access the transactional website. After you have logged in, look for the ‘New Companies’ link under the ‘Companies’ tab.

Credit:Entrepreneur

Talent Chawapiwa is no doubt the biggest talent of the recent COSAFA tournament. Many are asking where this talented man was all along? A good passer of the ball, this speedy and  skilful player should have been crowned the player of the tournament! He came with no less than 4 goals assists and also scored 2 brilliant goals and capped the tournament with a man of the match award on the final match which was won by Zimbabwe.

He chose the COSAFA tourney to show the nation and the world at large the talent that abounds in the country! Many questions are being asked by many soccer fans and the first one is ‘Where was Talent all along?’ Why was he not showcasing all of these skills at club level? Surely had he been included in the warriors team that played Liberia, perhaps we could have added our goal tally to 4 or 5?

Inorder to answer the question of where Talent was, we will quote soccer legend and analyst Alois Bunjira who has this to say about the talented Talent:

‘At FC Platinum Chawapiwa plays in gear number 5 at 200km/h while the other players are in gear 3 at 80km/h.He goes with the ball forward …and finds noone in support..and has to turn back.That assist for Mushure, I am sure at FC Platinum the closest player supporting him would still be in the centre circle jogging forward.He is then forced to dribble backwards…..and some people see it as he is not playing well. At FC they cannot compliment his pace’

The talented talent is not being used effectively at club level because of his lightning speed and superb talent. These are the weaknesses that were observed by the Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambwa, he corrected the weaknesses by ensuring that Talent had support whenever he rushed into the penalty box. The result is the brilliant performance of 4 goal assists, 2 goals and a man of the match performance in the final game against our rivals north of Zambezi.

Lessons learnt for Entrepreneurs

You may be another Talent Chawapiwa, brilliant ideas-full of innovation but lack supportive systems of an enabling environment. We have seen this with a number of talented youngsters who are developing brilliant Apps which are finding no takers. One such App was developed by a youngster who is a member of this forum. He developed an App that helps to solve the issue of poultry farmers who face problems of marketing their chickens. The App developed helps to connect farmers with potential buyers. If you would like chickens, you simply log in and connect with various chicken farmers with chickens for sale.

How has been the response by the market? The response has been lukewarm-few took notice, few registered and we are sure that the youngster should be a disappointed man. Here was a free service to help the nation with marketing problems so why few takers? The reason for this response is simple-the youngster is in the same situation with Talent, as Alois Bunjira puts it’ travelling at 200km/hr in gear 5 whilst everyone is travelling at 80km/hr in gear number 3.

Does this mean you have to reduce speed? No, not at all….keep shining, keep flying high, keep innovating. The rest of the nation maybe taking time to appreciate Apps but they soon will with time. He has already assessed the problems with uptakes of Apps and its time to go back to the drawing board. Did he market it well? Did he involve the users of the innovation? Did he work with poultry producers, poultry farmers associations? Did he approach poultry companies for possible partnerships?

All of these questions will help him relaunch the Mobile App and ensure that it is well marketed and received by users. His time will definitely come like what Talent recently did in South Africa at the COSAFA Tourney.