GAUTENG. – A provision requiring estate agents to hold a black economic empowerment (BEE) certificate in order to obtain a fidelity fund certificate (FFC) has been declared unconstitutional in the Pretoria High Court.
The organisation Sakeliga, which brought the case against the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), says the judgment means the EAAB may no longer refuse an FFC simply because an applicant does not hold a BEE certificate. The case arose from a decision by the EAAB to withhold FFCs, which estate agents need to legally conduct business, from enterprises that could not produce a BEE certificate. The court has declared this requirement, section 50(a)(x) of the Estate Agents Act, invalid. Sakeliga says the judgment frees estate agents with immediate effect from the obligation to comply with the BEE requirement for an FFC.
The court has also partly ruled in Sakeliga's favour regarding the definition of "estate agent" in the act. Certain parts of the definition have been declared unconstitutional by the organisation. Because the judgment finds that provisions of an act are unconstitutional, it is referred to the Constitutional Court for confirmation. Sakeliga says Parliament will have 24 months after confirmation to amend the definition in question. The EAAB has also been ordered to pay Sakeliga's legal costs, including the fees of two advocates.
Sakeliga says it is considering further legal options after the court did not grant the full amendment of the definition for which the organisation had asked.
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This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
