How may times have I heard this conversation: “But Sir, have you heard about this month’s new Cyber Security-, POPIA-, and FICA legislation…and a host of other business compliance requirements? And the typical response: “Why can’t they just leave me to do business? I am not an attorney and I don’t have an MBA”. But the truth is that every business owner needs to know EVERYTHING there is to know about local legislation (and compliance requirements). It does not seem to matter that the state legislator passes more than one piece of legislation per day. In the 1977 Appellate Division court case of S v De Blom 1977 (3) SA 513 (A) the judge confirmed for ever: Ignorance of the Law is no excuse.
We know this: Compliance is not optional. Albeit that the eerie ideological squid-fingers of the law and its compliance officers scare us, it pays to comply. Not only do you sleep better, you also get to do business in South Africa. To add insult to injury, compliance legislation has a spirit, which makes it all the more difficult to adhere to. No longer can you read the law, create tick-boxes for all the imperatives and comply. Substance takes precedence over legal form and the new compliance objective is to understand the heartbeat of compliance legislation and then adapt a business lifestyle that mirrors the working of the spirit in that legislation.
What to do then? Invest in your relationships with your accountant, your insurance broker and your general compliance service provider – the attorney with the Master’s Degree in Business Management. Someone has to read the Green Gazette on a monthly basis, interpret the legislation and apply it all to your business while you focus on the business revenue.
And the grass is NOT GREENER on the other side – many countries have even more compliance legislation to deal with than yours. Your relatively small investment in legal compliance will pay for itself over and over. Let’s be frank: those who comply to legislation get all the work. You want to be one of those who get all the work.