A Preliminary Analysis Of South African Companies Act 1973

South Africa is the most developed country in Africa. Since the new government set up in 1994, there has been rapidly improvement in the trade between China and South Africa, and it has already become our largest trading partner in Africa up to now. As the law which organizes the economic pillars, namely company entities, South African Companies Act plays a crucial role in the history of South African economy, and it is also an important parameter when Chinese investigate in South Africa. However, articles and works referring to South African Companies Act, especially the current Companies Act 1973 are quite few in China presently. So, it is much valuable to have a study of South African Companies Act 1973.South African Law is the typical model of African mixed legal system, but South African Companies Act is only the exotic of England. The history of the Companies Act of the United Kingdom is therefore largely also the history of the South African Companies Act to some extent. While, as the Companies Act 1973 brought into effect, the government of South Africa tried best to break away from the England approach and decided to find her own way to improve the companies legislation. As a result, South African Company Act 1973 had gradually amended 22 times during the past 30 years.South African Companies Act 1973 embodies many profound rules and systems, such as the types and forms of companies, registration and deregistration, capital system, company structures, remedies to shareholders, accountant and auditor system, etc. On approaching these issues, the author analyzes the current act, thus to clarify the details exactly, as well as compares with the international mainstream concerned, thus to define the international boundary.There are four distinguish ideas implied in South African Companies Act 1973, including deepening legal transplant localization, keeping in line with the company law internationalization, abiding by the new constitutional dispensation, insisting the shareholder-oriented approach. These ideas are undoubtedly significant through the course of company modernization in South Africa.Along with the flourish of market economy, the government of South African released a policy paper in June 2004, entitled South African Company Law for the 21st century: Guidelines for Corporate Law Reform, which set out the framework and guiding principles of the new Companies Amendment Act. Undoubtedly, South African Companies...