South Africa has over a 60% failure rate, in fact, it has increased to just below the 80% mark since March 2020. Some of the most pressing reasons are lack of access to markets and lack of access to funding. These however are in my view symptoms of another underlying cause; inadequate or no legal compliance.  The reality is that legal services are often one of those aspects left unattended by entrepreneurs; there are many reasons for this. Some reasons include the cost of reliable legal services, the time execution takes and the issues around general accessibility to credible legal services. As a result, we know that many businesses have resorted to using free templates from unreliable sources. Where reliable templates are obtained – they are often incorrectly utilised or completed, which renders these completely useless.What we have seen to date is that COVID-19 and the lockdowns have amplified this trajectory.

So, now more than ever having legal ducks in a row will be the fine line between survival and demise, especially for small businesses. Dealing with employment and tax issues, and applying to relief funds will require the correct documentation. The costs of being compliant can be prohibitive at the best of times. Right now, every cent counts, and we're working hard to help companies get on top of their affairs cost-effectively.

It is because of what the data has taught us, that SchoemanLaw identified the need to use Technology in a traditional law firm in a unique way, long before COVID-19 hit us all. Contracts4biz.co.za was the result of this realisation. It offers reliable legal contracts, no prior legal training required, easy to put together, instantly available to download and are made available at an affordable price. Contracts4Biz is supported through help texts, 24/7 chatbot free podcasts, videos, blog posts and training events.

Contracts4biz launched in 2018 and since then, has empowered thousands of entrepreneurs. The innovator behind this is law firm SchoemanLaw Inc in Cape Town, which has won a number of awards and accolades since its launch:

• Winner Gender Mainstreaming Awards 2018: Unlisted Companies – Women Empowerment in the Workplace
• Finalist 702 Cape Talk Nedbank Business Accelerator 2018
• Winner WOZA Women in Law Awards 2019: 6+  Women Lawyers
• Finalist Standard Bank Top Woman Awards Top 2019: Gender Empowered Company: Diversity & Inclusion Award
• Finalist African Legal Awards 2019: Best use of Technology
• HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge Class of 2020

The platform is also ever-evolving and ultimately, customer-driven.  Documents are added as and when customers request them. All the materials are also frequently updated to ensure that they align with the latest best practice. There is no need to leave small business’ legal needs unattended ever again!

Trade Conferences International welcomes this year’s sponsors of the Anti-Money Laundering & Financial Crime Southern Africa Conference.

Sponsors include LexisNexis Risk Solutions (Gold), FICO/Bateleur (Bronze), Navigate Compliance (session sponsor) and LexisNexis South Africa (exhibitor). Both FICO/Bateleur Software LexisNexis Risk Solutions are retuning for the fifth time as medal sponsors.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions is this years’ gold sponsor. The company provides data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government.

FICO is a leading global provider of integrated IT solutions for governance, risk & compliance (GRC). Based on the Siron® product family, FICO develops and implements standardized and individual solutions against financial and white-collar crime and for risk management and monitoring, analysis, and reporting.

Bateleur Software, who is a bronze sponsor, is a leader in the South African high-end software technology arena and as a Fico certified sales and implementation partner, Bateleur Software successfully implemented and support the Siron solution at various banks, insurance companies, asset manager and a government organisation in Southern Africa.

Navigate is a South African based regulatory advisory and training firm with representative offices across Southern Africa. The company are the official training partner for the International Compliance Association which is the leading professional body for compliance specialists globally.

For over 85 years LexisNexis® South Africa has been at the forefront of legal content and technology. Today, the company provides the most trusted and credible legal and regulatory content and intelligent, digital platforms.

Ryno van Ellewee, MD at TCI, said the participation of sponsors at this conference underlines the importance of the event for AML and financial crime professionals. “Sponsoring allow sponsors to meet nearly 200 attendees at the event, which will be held on 1 & 2 September 2021 at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways. It is both physical and on-line. 

“Sponsorship provides participating companies a platform to be able to increase brand awareness, attain sales leads and get exposure amongst the targeted audience.“ It also allows several networking opportunities with high profile delegates and speakers”, said Ryno.

Keeping abreast of technology changes affecting the banking landscape is tough. From AI and machine learning to mobile, fintechs, digital, data, cloud and many more, new developments are happening all the time.One option in making things a little bit easier to understand is to attend TCI’s upcoming BankTech Southern Africa 2020 Conference.

The BankTech 2020 conference is the only event in SA which will address the pitfalls of legacy systems and empower attendees with the right set of insights to negotiate dealing with and improving legacy systems without impacting on operations.

This event is taking place on 26 & 27 February 2020 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg will feature close to 30 top speakers, eight sessions and a panel discussion. Attending this event will provide the ideal platform to attendees to get the latest news regarding technology developments – both locally and international.

Here are a few topics to be addresses at this event:

• Digital implementation within finance
• Why technology adoption is mandatory
• Disruption of fintechs in the financial industry
• Using behavioural economics to increase the uptake of digital banking platforms
• Fostering business growth through open banking
• How artificial intelligence will benefit financial services
• Exploiting traditional information technology frameworks in governing new technologies
• Addressing regulatory challenges through technology
• Automating fraud detection and prevention
• Embracing cloud in emerging financial services
• Deployment of traditional payment solutions in the cloud
• Big data, analytics and technology
• Data governance implications of moving to the cloud

With more than 100 banking conferences held, Trade Conferences International has for the past 10 years become the leading banking conference organiser in South Africa. With signature events such as Mobile Banking, Payments Southern Africa, Transaction Banking, AML & Financial Crime and Big Data and Analytics in Banking, TCI became a trusted conference organiser for the financial industry.

Normal registration fee: R9 500 + VAT = R10 925 p.p 

10% group registrations (3 or more): R8 550 + VAT = R9 832.50

15% group registration (5 or more): R8 075 + VAT = R9 286.25

To register as a delegate e-mail Project Manager Bandile Ngobese on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities e-mail: Ryno van Ellewee on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 011 803-1553/0009.

Browser-based, response firewall for small to medium enterprises Comprehensive advanced threat protection and customisation High-end visibility security and control suited to all budgets and businesses

Johannesburg, South Africa, October 2019: Ozone Information Technology Distribution has been awarded the license to distribute Untangle NG Firewall in South Africa. The one-stop firewall solution provides simple, accessible and highly customable security and threat control to companies of all sizes and budgets. “Untangle offers small to medium enterprises and startups cost-effective access to responsive and powerful threat detection and resolution solution,” says Henk Olivier, MD, Ozone Information Technology Distribution. “It has been designed specifically for companies htat have limited IT resources and budgets but that recognise the importance of having a robust security posture.” Untangle NG Firewall delivers a comprehensive, enterprise-grade network security platform to organisations in any industry, and of any size.

It proactively stops malware, hacking attempts, phishing schemes and threats, and both the Untangle Command Center and ScoutIQ cyber threat intelligence tools redefine insight and access. With the Command Center, the business can see into all its NG firewall deployments and can manage them from a single login, making it easy to deploy and manage appliances from any location. The ScoutIQ cyber threat intelligence tool performs detailed threat analyses across all traffic types for an additional layer of defence.

“The Untangle solution neatly sidesteps many of the challenges that face the business today – unauthorised network access, rogue applications, malware, and spam,” adds Olivier. “It offers analysis, insights, and protection for a holistic layer of security control. As every organisation is now facing regulatory controls and compliance restrictions, cost-effective solutions such as Untangle help the smaller businesses stay compliant without the weighty price tag.”

SMEs, startups and companies interested in finding out more about how Untangle works and the rich feature set can contact Ozone Information Technology Distribution for hands-on support -  visit http://ozone.co.za/untangle, call +27 10 591 5588, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Polystyrene Association of SA has launched a Food Compliance Responsibility Initiative (FCRI) - aimed at ensuring that world-class health and safety standards are adhered to in the South African context. Members of the Association who manufacture packaging used in food contact applications have been encouraged to sign a voluntary commitment to adhere to  international health and safety standards. 

Polystyrene (PS) packaging is widely used by brand owners, retailers and the fast food industry to sell a wide variety of different food products. Yoghurt cups, drinking cups, ice-cream containers and fresh fruit trays, meat trays, poultry trays and convenience food boxes are all made from PS.  The packaging is strong, light and stable. It increases the shelf life of food, keeping it fresh and making it easy to transport and store.  “These are all excellent product qualities which have made PS the material of choice for many applications.  However, as with any other packaging material, it needs to be used as intended by the manufacturers and handled correctly - especially in certain phases of its life cycle if it is to have a role in a sustainable future for society,” explains Adri Spangenberg, CEO of the Polystyrene Association of SA. 

Adri goes on to clarify that the driving force behind the initiative is the belief that raw material suppliers, product manufacturers, product distributors and consumers are joint stewards for the responsible and sustainable production and use of food compliant PS products. “Manufacturers are required to ensure that all raw materials included during the production process, are food grade certified. Good manufacturing practices must be displayed at all times and only in-house recyclate derived from the original food grade raw materials is allowed to be used,” she says. 

Support from the industry has been very positive and welcoming and the country’s biggest manufacturers of polystyrene packaging have already committed themselves to these standards.   “We are very excited about this recent development and believe it will it is an important step forward that will protect the growth and well-being of our industry and ensure the long-term use of polystyrene as the packaging material,” Adri concludes. 

POPIA was signed into law in 2013. GDPR was adopted in 2016. GDPR came into effect in 2018 and POPIA hasn’t come into force yet. EU regulation concerns every company which has at least one employee or one client who is a European citizen, while POPIA is to be complied by any responsible party domiciled in South Africa or any responsible party who uses automated or non-automated means within South Africa. GDPR covers all the EU members wherever they reside, and POPIA concerns those within the jurisdiction of South Africa only. The requirement seems to articulate clearly the limits of compliance for regional businesses making nearly each South African company subject to both sets of regulations.

POPIA makes you accountable for legal processing of personal information in accordance with the purpose. The request for user details shouldn’t exceed the needed amount or be kept more than it is necessary. Collected information is to be relevant and regularly updated. A person whose data is stored should be aware of what details are selected, why and by whom an enquiry was made.

A company which processes customer data is required to ensure that proper measures are taken to protect confidential details. A data subject can manage personal information which is used by a responsible party, remove excessive details and correct misleading facts. A person can ask for a record confirming that particular details are kept by an organisation.

POPIA has a dedicated rule set for direct marketing and automated assessment process involving data subjects.

The scope of POPIA comprises not only confidential details of individuals but also data of legal persons protecting corporate entities from information misuse.

GDPR shapes similar standards which should administer personal data usage but comprises some ideas which are not as clear in the POPI Act. Even if South African businesses comply with POPIA successfully they will need to observe GDPR requirements focusing particularly on EU rules the conditions of which seem to be more articulate. Under the GDPR a company is to provide:

• Privacy by design and by default approach. An organisation is to implement safety techniques during the time a decision is being taken on the ways the information is going to be processed and during the usage
• Data readability. Requested data should get structured and transparently arranged by an organisation
• Multi-step access. Users are given the possibility to erase their personal data and learn about the safety measures which are taken in case the details are transmitted to a different country
• Consent. Agreement comes after a comprehensible list of conditions
• Data protection impact assessment. DPIA should be conducted in order to mitigate data protection risk

While breaches under GDPR should be reported within 72 hours POPIA doesn’t emphasise the time limit and requires organisations to announce a data leak as soon as possible.

To ensure that your business has no compliance breaches an appropriate management framework should be integrated. It is important to have accurate mechanisms in place which would evaluate the relevance of introduced policies and keep your system updated. Comprehensive approach to regulatory compliance allows you to assess whether your business processes are conducted in accordance with the recent legal acts. Thorough monitoring lets you see if there are any configuration changes and policy violation.

Many companies lack time and competence which are needed to adapt their corporate rules. Some organisations have never had any internal regulations to conform to and now they are going to face loads of data which demands to be discovered, analysed and rearranged. Software makes essential processes automated and ensures that your company functions in obedience to compliance requirements.

It is crucial to preset rigorous control over the data which is transmitted outside the corporate perimeter. If information is to be processed in a different country which has its own local regulator there are a few key points that should be observed:

1. The transfer of user details should be transparent.
2. A data subject has the right to:

• Demand solid data security abroad
• Review and correct the details if needed
• Make sure that the time during which the information is stored is limited
• Check and reduce if necessary the number of purposes the data can be used for

GDPR doesn’t go against local regulations, it just adds to the list of regional do’s and don’ts in case it lacks relevant points.

Intelligent risk management program comprises efficient tools to prevent your company from fines and penalties. Nevertheless, GDPR remains an intriguing issue for any non-EU country since the process of punishment mechanism still presents some misconceptions about how it should be implemented in countries all over the world. A number of questions might arise when European citizens get their data misused by a foreign organisation. That is what makes compliance an intricate problem demanding even more attention. Automated management systems are installed to save your time and effort.

2016’s largest AML gathering for SADC professionals

The direct costs of non-compliance can be high, not forgetting the risk of reputational damage and the loss of business opportunities and confidence incurred. There has been no better time for management and executives to take a leading role in mastering corporate governance and ethical leadership by attending a leading industry forum such as the Anti-Money Laundering, Fraud & Financial Crime Conference.  

The Annual Anti-Money Laundering, Fraud & Financial Crime Conference is the definitive event to attend to update your AML strategy for future developments affecting your operations in Africa.  

Attend what promises to be the definitive AML event of 2016 attended by over 150 senior industry thought-leaders & forward-thinking AML practitioners. Network with participants including representatives from the following organisations and departments : ABSA Regulatory Control & Risk Management * Barclays Bank Big Data, Analytics & Insights  * Barclays Africa Financial Crime Compliance  * Nedbank Retail Risk * Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking * Nedbank Client Onboarding  * Nedbank Private Wealth * Standard Bank Group Compliance Assurance * Standard Bank Group Money Laundering Surveillance * Standard Bank Group Internal Audit * Standard Bank Governance & AML – Rest of Africa * GBS Mutual Bank * Sasfin Bank Forex * Investec Compliance * Discovery Health * South African Reserve Bank * KPMG * Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr * PwC * Hogan Lovells * Firstrand * ENS Africa * ACCPA  * Fircosoft * J2 * SAS * Experian * Frame Consulting * Master Data Managment * Deloitte * EY * IQ Business Group to name a few...

As South Africa’s leading financial conference organisers, Trade Conferences International has gathered a highly qualified array of experts from various financial institutions in South Africa to address attendees at the Anti-Money Laundering Conference 2016.