The Companies Tribunal (the Tribunal) in partnership with the Free State Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the Chamber) hosted a vibrant workshop on 15 March 2017 at the Office of the Premier in Mangaung. This workshop was aimed at raising awareness about services of the Tribunal to the member of the Chamber who are mostly youth.

Provincial President of the Chamber Mr Tshediso Thinane welcomed the delegates and appreciated the presence of the Tribunal because young business people experience a lot of directorship disputes, for him this was an opportunity for them to understand free services that the Tribunal provides especially adjudication of directorship disputes. This was concurred by Mr Life Mokone who is the Provincial Secretary of the South African Youth Council, in his opening address he said “the companies that we open with our friends have not been effective because one or two members will disappear and as a result we are unable to move, we can’t remove him because we need his signature, there’s lot of young people who are frustrated by this but lack information, I believe the Tribunal will assist in terms of clarifying these glitches”. He also applauded the Chamber for organizing this workshop and stated that there needs to be an intensive engagement with government in terms of youth matters in the province.

Mr Boitumelo Dithebe who is the branch manager of the NYDA offered his message of support and encouraged the youth to participate in sessions like these because they are informative and empowering. He also urged members of the Chamber interact with the Tribunal in order to gain knowledge. Mr KB Lebusho who is the Chief Operations Officer of the Chamber gave a background on the formation of the Chamber and the support that the Chamber provides to its members.

The Chamber was formed under Youth enterprise development strategy of the the dti. It was formed to advocate for young people who are in business. The Chamber has over 2000 members and operates in the following sectors; infrastructure dev, agriculture, ITC, informal business transport, industrial development, logistics, engineering, manufacturing, creative arts, construction, mining, social entrepreneurship, export and import, and tourism. Ms Agnes Tsele-Maseloanyane who is the Full time Tribunal outlined the mandate of the Tribunal to members. She was followed by Mr Selby Magwasha who is the Deputy Registrar at the Tribunal, he presented about the type of applications that can be brought to the Tribunal and the process of filing.

It was important for the Tribunal to host this workshop with the Chamber because it is one of the biggest youth business structures and hosting it in Mangaung was strategic because Mangaung is economic hub of the Free State province, it was important to raise awareness about Tribunal services and engage members of Chamber with the hope that the Tribunal will receive more applications from Free State especially from small business who experience challenges in terms of funding.

Questions that were asked to the Tribunal were about inter arlia;

• Clarity of the writing of MOI in the new Companies Act
• How to make MOI a formal document
• Whether the Tribunal can resolve Issues relating to shareholding where marriage in community of property is involved
• Tribunal jurisdiction when it comes to cooperatives.
• Writing of the cooperatives constitution and Cooperatives Act
• Enforceability of Tribunal decision
• Fronting and cross cutting functions between Tribunal and BBBEE Commission

In closing it was felt that the workshop was very informative. It was recommended that the Tribunal open a provincial office in Mangaung through forming partnerships with other government entities. Other stakeholders present were the representatives from the Office of the Premier and leadership of Mangaung Nafcoc.

Mr Tshediso Thinane facilitating the question and answer session at the Free State Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry Workshop