Impact of the withdrawal of the CIPC non-binding opinion on sections 90 and 92 of the Companies Act

In October 2019, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) issued a notice of the withdrawal of the non-binding opinion (“this” or “the” “opinion”) pertaining to Regulation 28(2)(a) of the Companies Regulations, 2011 (the Companies Regulations) to the Companies Act, 2008 (the Companies Act). This opinion applied to legal practitioners who are registered as companies in terms of the Companies Act. This opinion considered whether the holding of assets in the legal practitioners’ trust accounts is regarded as part of the ordinary course of the legal practitioner’s primary business. This article serves as a reminder of the requirements contained in section 90 of the Companies Act that auditors should be cognisant of in accepting the appointment as an auditor of the business accounts of a legal practitioner.