The Director's Newsletter

May / June 2011

Impact of the New Consumer Protection Act

1 April 2011 saw the New Consumer Protection Act come into effect. This is a comprehensive act and covers pre-sale offers, sales contracts and post-sale circumstances. All organizations need to be aware of both their rights and obligations so that they know where they stand if certain issues arise. It therefore may be necessary to speak to your organization's attorneys to obtain clarity on issues that are pertinent to yourselves such as for example cancellation of contracts and returns of purchased goods. There are many issues which will need to be clarified over a period of time but it is important that organizations develop their policies on issues in advance before issues arise so that staff knows how to deal with them.

February 2011

Do Your Credit Sales Fall Under the National Credit Act?

All your transactions with your customers, clients or patients are in simplistic terms either cash or credit transactions. Cash if the amount is settled upon delivery of the goods or service or the account is settled within a few days of delivery of the goods or service. If, however, after providing the goods or service an account is issued to the customer personally or either by mail or e-mail after which a month-end statement is rendered to the customer, then that transaction would be a credit transaction.

Established by Denis Jefferies in 1983, a professional accountant who holds a B.A. in Economics and Law and an M.B.A. (Cape Town), to date the CMD has trained more than 10 000 persons through public and in-house training programs.