Directors must comply with a long list of onerous duties or risk personal liability for company debts and losses, criminal liability, and declaration as a “delinquent” director – a severe and career-threatening sanction.

Moonlighting is reportedly common in South Africa, and that seems unlikely to change any time soon. Everyone should therefore take note of a recent Labour Court finding that a highly qualified university lecturer’s decision to take a second full-time job without permission justified her dismissal.

“Copyright” or “Copywrite”?

Commonly confused, and sometimes incorrectly switched out by spell-checkers, these two terms are pronounced identically but have completely different meanings. “Copyright” is one of our intellectual property legal protections for creators of artistic and creative works. In South Africa it is automatic and doesn’t require registration; but adding a copyright notice with a “©” symbol and the year of creation to your work tells would-be plagiarists that you are serious about protecting your rights.

“Copywrite” on the other hand is what a “copywriter” does – literally, “writes copy”, usually for some form of advertising or other marketing communication.