PER: 2012 Volume 15 No 2http://hdl.handle.net/10394/71702024-03-19T10:59:01Z2024-03-19T10:59:01ZDo boards of trustees of South African retirement funds owe fiduciary duties to both the funds and fund members? The debate continuesMarumoagae, M Chttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/72422016-04-28T21:49:41Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZDo boards of trustees of South African retirement funds owe fiduciary duties to both the funds and fund members? The debate continues
Marumoagae, M C
Over the years, the South African retirement fund industry has experienced major
regulatory changes. These changes were aimed at imposing a higher standard of
governance on the boards of trustees governing various pension funds. As such,
there has been a debate within the retirement fund industry as to whom the board,
as the governing and managing body of the retirement fund, is accountable. South
African courts and tribunals adjudicating pension fund related disputes and the
retirement industry at large seem to share the view that the board of trustees is
accountable to both the fund and its members. In that the board of trustees owes
fiduciary duties to both the fund and its members, meaning that the board is required
to act in the best interest of the fund and its members. However, in this paper I
demonstrate that the boards of trustees of South African Pension Funds are
accountable to and owe fiduciary duties only to the fund they serve and not members
of those funds. Furthermore, I submit that at the very best the board owes a duty of
good faith towards the members of the fund. In order to substantiate my
submissions, I distinguish the legal position relating to trust law from the law relating
to retirement funds in South Africa.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZComparative analysis of access to patented HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical medicines through the Canadian and EU trips flexibilities measures: are they efficacious or overly burdensome and ineffective measures?Sibanda, O Shttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/72412016-04-28T21:49:40Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZComparative analysis of access to patented HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical medicines through the Canadian and EU trips flexibilities measures: are they efficacious or overly burdensome and ineffective measures?
Sibanda, O S
This paper evaluates the Canadian and the European Union's (EU) implementation
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council Decision of 2003, which
resolved that developed nations could export patented pharmaceutical drugs to
member states in order to address public health challenges such as Human
Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS),
tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, such states including Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA). The author makes a primarily textual appraisal of how and to what extent the
Canada Access to Medicine Regime (CAMR) and European Union (EU) Regulations
benefit, for instance, SSA countries in the WTO in their quest to make essential
medicine more accessible. The author argues that although there are identifiable
complexities inherent in the Canadian and the EU's access to pharmaceutical
product regimes, there are far more important incentives and benefits that can be
reaped in taking advantage of the respective systems. The author recommends that
countries facing public health crises/emergencies, such as SSA countries, and nongovernmental
organisations (NGOs) take advantage of the regulatory flexibilities of
Canada and the EU in their efforts to provide their communities with essential
HIV/AIDS treatment, and treatment for other diseases such as malaria. The author
dismisses the arguments against TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property) flexibilities-inspired legislation and similar measures as mostly mere
rhetoric and hair-splitting, because they sometimes unwarrantedly dismiss a
workable solution to public-health problems.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZChallenges confronting health care workers in government's ARV rollout: rights and responsibilitiesVawda, Y AVariawa, Fhttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/72402016-04-28T21:47:43Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZChallenges confronting health care workers in government's ARV rollout: rights and responsibilities
Vawda, Y A; Variawa, F
South Africa is renowned for having a progressive Constitution with strong protection
of human rights, including protection for persons using the public health system.
While significant recent discourse and jurisprudence have focused on the rights of
patients, the situation and rights of providers of health care services have not been
adequately ventilated. This paper attempts to foreground the position of the human
resources personnel located at the centre of the roll-out of the government's
ambitious programme of anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic represents a major public health crisis in our country and,
inasmuch as various critical policies and programmes have been devised in
response, the key to a successful outcome lies in the hands of the health care
professionals tasked with implementing such strategies. Often pilloried by the public,
our health care workers (HCWs) face an almost Herculean task of turning the tide on
the epidemic. Unless the rights of HCWs are recognised and their needs adequately
addressed, the best laid plans of government will be at risk.
This contribution attempts to identify and analyse the critical challenges confronting
HCWs at the coalface of the HIV/AIDS treatment programme, in particular the extent
to which their own rights are under threat, and offers recommendations to remedy
the situation in order to ensure the successful realisation of the ARV rollout.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe role of SADC institutions in implementing SADC treaty provisions dealing with regional integrationSaurombe, Ahttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/72392016-04-28T21:47:18Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe role of SADC institutions in implementing SADC treaty provisions dealing with regional integration
Saurombe, A
Without some level of institutionalisation or other means of enforcement, national
commitment to regional trade integration is bound to face some challenges.
Accordingly, transnational trade is obviously inhibited when the validity and
enforcement of contracts, obligation and rules cannot be guaranteed beyond the
term of office of an administration. Thus Member States' commitment to the work of
institutions within a regional economic community like SADC is critical for the full
implementation of the SADC Treaty and its Protocols. The Protocol on Trade has
been hailed as the most important for integration in SADC. This paper will indicate
that institutions are essential drivers of organisations and their role in regional
integration is therefore very important. However under the current legal and
institutional framework, the SADC regional integration agenda faces major
challenges of implementation. SADC institutions are not capable of completely
fulfilling their legal obligations, although in some instances the lack of fulfilment was
clearly a result of the legal instruments themselves being incomplete and needing
further reform.
2012-01-01T00:00:00Z