WELCOME TO THE

FACULTY OF LAW
Module Guide 2024

DEPARTMENT NAME: MERCANTILE LAW

MODULE NAME: BUSINESS ENTITIES

MODULE CODE: JHT1211

No part of this module guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission from J MAHOLO, Faculty of Law, Nelson Mandela University.
 INTRODUCTION
This module is a 12-credit semester module with two F2F lectures per week for full time students. Part-time
students will have a double F2F lecture once a week.

PLEASE NOTE

Lecture attendance for first year modules is compulsory and will contribute towards the calculation of your final
class mark. See page 17 for an explanation on the calculation of the class mark.

All assessments will be written on campus in a lecture venue and invigilated by your lecturer.

Material, provided on Moodle and/or referred to by your lecturer, must be read prior to the lectures and tutorials.

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 IMPORTANT LINKS
1 It is of the utmost importance that you keep up to date with information that will be shared via email and
the zero-rated Moodle site, which can be accessed through: https://learn.mandela.ac.za/
The faculty of law has a general information Moodle site for all law students, which can be accessed
through https://learn.mandela.ac.za/course/view.php?id=6083

2 You can follow the Faculty on its social media pages:

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/NMUFacultyofLaw
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Ic9UXAOBEXEvdUVGO_h9Q/featured
Website: https://law.mandela.ac.za

3 You will have F2F tutorials in lecture venues on campus. F2F lectures are not recorded. Online lectures
will be presented via the Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) platform and several learning activities including
videos, PowerPoint presentations, self-assessment activities are placed on the module’s Moodle site.
Online lectures are recorded, and the recording will be uploaded on Unitube and a URL link to the
recording will be placed on the module’s Moodle site.

4 Online lectures will be presented using MS Teams. F2F lectures will be presented in the allocated venue
provided on the timetable. Your timetable is available on the student portal.

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 Student support links/contact numbers
For you to scan the QR code reader, you will need to download the QR code Reader from Google Play for
Android/ App Store

Emthonjeni Student Wellness NMU Emthonjeni Student Wellness

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Student Success Resources:
Everything from Learning
material, plagiarism and NMU Student Success Resources
referencing to stress and
Time management.

Student Success Coaching

Success Coaching
Info_2023.pdf

IT Helpdesk 041-504 3000

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 GetDigiReady:
Moodle GetDigiReady: Moodle

Universal Administrative Assistant &

Accessibility & Secretary
Disability Services Tel: +27 41 504 2313
Tinita.vanAardt@mandela.ac.za

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 Emergency contact numbers:

Mandela University Protection 041 504 2009/9111 (GQ),

Services 044 801 5050 (George)

041 504 2009 (GQ),

After-hours Medical
072 138 1280 (George)
Emergencies
080 021 2223 (08:00-20:00) /
Suicide Emergency Lines 080 056 7567 or SMS 31393

South African Depression and

Anxiety Group (SADAG) 24- 080 045 6789
hour helpline
 Gqeberha - 0800504911
Toll free emergency numbers  George - 0800 801911

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MEET YOUR LECTURER

LECTURER

Ms Jacqueline Maholo

jacquelinem@mandela.ac.za

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

Mr Stephen Newman

StephenPeter.Newman@mandela.ac.za

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 CONSULTATION & COMMUNICATION
Communication with you will be via email, and Moodle from time to time.

Communication with you will be via email and Moodle from time to time. It is university policy that you must use
your university allocated e-mail address for all correspondence with your lecturer and other members of the faculty
or staff at the university. You will need to be diligent and check email and Moodle multiple times per day.

I am available for F2F consultation in my office number 0118, 1st Floor, Embizweni, South Campus,
Summerstrand, without an appointment on the following days and times:

Monday 14h00 – 16h00

Wednesday 10h30 – 11h30
Thursday 14h30 – 15h30

If you are unable to see me during my consultation hours, you must e-mail me to make an appointment for a
consultation.

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As per the Faculty’s Complaints Procedure, if you are experiencing any issues in this module, you must contact
me or consult with me to discuss the issue. Where we are unable to resolve the issue, you may raise it with the
Head of Department, Mr S Newman If an issue cannot be resolved by your lecturer or the HoD it may be escalated
to the Dean’s office.

The Faculty, in partnership with the Success Coaching Division and the Emthonjeni Wellness Centre, offers a
peer-mentoring programme. Should you experience any difficulties, academic or other, please contact the faculty
co-ordinator Miss Tina Hokwana at Tina.Hokwana@mandela.ac.za for assistance. Miss Hokwana is ably assisted
by the postgraduate associates in the faculty and the members of the academic support hub. Everyone that offers
success coaching is trained therein.

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 PRESCRIBED READING

Lecturer’s PowerPoint presentations/or notes (accessed on the Moodle site).

Additional readings placed on the module site or available via the library databases.

RECOMMENDED READING
New Entrepreneurial Law by Piet Delport (Author) second edition
(Textbook is recommended not prescribed – notes on Moodle are sufficient)

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 IMPORTANT DATES
2023 Year-end re-assessment period Monday, 15 January 2024 To Tuesday, 23 January 2024

First year welcoming ceremony Saturday 3 February 2024

First Year Student Success Programme Monday, 05 February 2024 To Friday, 09 February 2024

Teaching Cycle 1: Monday, 12 February 2024 To Thursday, 28 March 2024

First teaching cycle recess: Friday, 29 March 2024 To Sunday, 07 April 2024

Teaching Cycle 2: Monday, 08 April 2024 To Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Study Period Wednesday, 29 May 2024 To Friday 31 May 2024

Mid-Year Assessment Period Monday, 03 June 2024 To Monday, 24 June 2024

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Second teaching cycle recess:
Mid-Year Re-assessment and last
outstanding assessment Period
Teaching Cycle 3:
Third teaching cycle recess:
Teaching Cycle 4:
Study Period
Year-End Assessment Period
Fourth teaching cycle recess:
2024 Year-End Re-assessment and last Thursday, 16 January 2025
outstanding module assessment Period
Tuesday, 25 June 2024 To Sunday, 14 July 2024
Monday, 15 July 2024 To Friday, 19 July 2024
Monday, 22 July 2024 To Friday, 06 September 2024
Saturday, 07 September To Sunday, 15 September 2024
2024
Monday, 16 September To Friday, 1 November 2024
2024
Saturday, 02 November To Monday, 04 November 2024
2024
Tuesday, 05 November To Monday, 25 November 2024
2024
Tuesday, 26 November To Tuesday, 31 December 2024
2024
To Friday, 24 January 2025
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 LECTURES AND TUTORIALS
Attendance of lectures and tutorials is compulsory for all first-year modules. First-year students are compelled
to attend at least 75% of the lectures and tutorials and lecture attendance will contribute towards the
calculation of your final class mark. For other modules, your lecturer has the right to make attendance
compulsory and to allocate a percentage for attendance when calculating the final class mark for the module.
FACE-TO-FACE LECTURE TIMETABLE
LECTURE DAY TIME
TBC see Moodle announcement for
JHT1211 Full-time TBC
updates
JHT1211 Part-time
MONDAY 17H05 – 19H25
Venue 411 2 0215
JHT1211 Full-time
WEDNESDAY 14H25 – 15H35
Venue 411 0 2 205

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 FACULTY RULES
It is imperative that you comply with the rules of the

RULES & Faculty of Law and that, in the event of any enquiry,
complaint, unhappiness, you are first to consult with your
HONESTY
INTEGRITY lecturer,
Department.
and thereafter, the relevant Head of

You, as a student studying a module presented by the Faculty of Law, are expected to adhere to the highest
standards of academic honesty when completing assessments. The Nelson Mandela University issued a very
important statement explaining the institution’s position on Generative Artificial intelligence Please click on this link
to read this important statement: https://learn.mandela.ac.za/mod/folder/view.php?id=706806&forceview=1
This means that you may NOT:
 Plagiarise someone else’s work.
 Take and circulate screenshots of assessments to friends.
 Solicit the help of others to complete assessments.
 Contract with any essay writer to complete assessments.
Academic dishonesty is regarded in a very serious light by the Faculty of Law. Where there is a suspicion that you
are involved in academic dishonesty, you WILL BE referred to Legal Services at the university for disciplinary
action. Should you be found guilty of academic dishonesty or plagiarism, such conviction may be recorded against
your academic record. In such an event the faculty of Law will be unable to provide you with the ‘fit and proper’
testimonial and neither will the university be able to provide you with a certificate of good conduct. Both are needed
to register articles in the legal profession.

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 Consolidated assessment timetable link.
https://forms.mandela.ac.za/timetable/CTO_CC_ThisYear/consolidatedAssessmentTT.asp

PROPOSED ASSESSMENT PERIODS FOR 2024

ACADEMIC YEAR
First semester
First semester DATE

ASSESSMENT 1 8 – 26 April 2024

ASSESSMENT 2 2 – 23 May 2024

EMA’s FOR CONTINUOUS

29 – 31 May 2024
ASSESSMENT MODULES

EXAMS 3 – 24 June 2024

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RE-EXAM & LAST OUTSTANDING
15 –19 July 2024
EXAMS FOR SEMESTER ONE
RE-ASSESSMENTS FOR
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT 22 – 24 July 2024
MODULES

Second semester
Second semester DATE
ASSESSMENT 1 2 – 6 September 2024 and 16 - 30 September 2024
ASSESSMENT 2 1 – 22 October 2024
EMA’s FOR CONTINUOUS
30 October - 1 November 2024
ASSESSMENT MODULES
EXAMS 5 – 25 November 2024
RE-EXAM AND LAST
OUTSTANDING EXAMS FOR 16 - 24 January 2025
SEMESTER TWO
RE-ASSESSMENTS FOR
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT 27 - 29 January 2025
MODULES

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 SEMESTER MODULES
A minimum of TWO assessments and ONE examination per semester will be scheduled for this module.
All assessments will be in-person in allocated lecture venues on campus and will be invigilated by your
lecturer.

 Two assessments will be written during the semester and one examination is written during the
examination period.
 Assessment one (A1) will cover all the work covered up to the end of the week before the date of the
assessment.
 Assessment two (A2) will cover all the work covered up to the end of the week before the date of the
assessment.
 The examination will cover all the work covered in the semester.
 The class mark will be calculated by using the best one mark out of the two assessments written during the
semester.
 You must obtain an overall class mark of at least 40% for you to be allowed entry into the examination.
 If you are registered for a first-year module or your lecturer enforces the attendance rule and you do not
have 75% attendance of all lectures and tutorials for this module, your class mark must be at least 50% for
you to be allowed entry into the examination. This means that you must attend 75% of your lectures and
tutorials. If you attend 75% of your lectures and tutorials you will be allowed entry to the examination with a

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 class mark of 40% or more and an additional 2% will be added to your final class mark for attending lectures
as required.
 The final mark in a semester module is calculated as follows: Class mark 50% and examination mark 50%.
 There are no further assessment opportunities after assessment two.

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 LAST OUTSTANDING EXAMINATION OR END OF
MODULE ASSESSMENT (EMA)
Last outstanding examinations and EMAs are only considered when you are in your final year, and you only need
one module to graduate. The faculty determines last-outstanding-assessments at the end of each semester. After
the June and November examinations, the Faculty determines which students have only failed one module. Those
students are then granted an opportunity to write a last outstanding examination / EMA during the July (first
semester modules) and January (second semester modules) re-examination or re-EMA periods.

If a student had, for example, registered an extra elective(s) in the 2nd semester (as precautionary); or failed a
compulsory module and an elective in the 1st semester, the Faculty assumes that the student will pass all 1st
semester special or re-assessment examinations/EMAs and the 2nd semester modules (where a student has a
special or re-assessment examination/EMA, the Faculty assumes that the student will pass such an examination
and still award the LOE/A (Last Outstanding Exam/Assessment)). The failed compulsory module will be the only
outstanding module to complete (as the student can potentially complete if the student is granted and passes a
Last Outstanding re-assessment for the compulsory module and passes all the 2nd semester modules).

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If the student fails the Last Outstanding for the compulsory 1st semester module and passes all the 2nd semester
modules, the student will need to redo the failed compulsory module (register the next year) as another last
outstanding opportunity will not be granted for the compulsory 1st semester module (as a last outstanding had
already been granted. There is no opportunity to be awarded a last outstanding examination again for a first
semester module in the January re-assessment period. (In line with rule G1.13 of the General Prospectus 2021

This means that the mark awarded (which may not exceed 50%) for the last outstanding assessment (covering all
the work of the semester or the year) will be the student’s final mark. Last outstanding assessments can only be
granted provided the student was registered for and was active in the module during the 2024 academic year.

Please note that rule G1.13.2.11 (“a last outstanding re-assessment will not be granted for continuous
assessment modules”) applies to the traditional continuous assessment modules such as Legal Skills
and Legal Practice.

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 FORMAT OF ASSESSMENTS
All assessments will be invigilated in-person timed assessments. Assessments will be written in allocated venues
on campus and will be invigilated by your lecturer with the assistance of post graduate assistants employed in the
faculty. Your lecturer will determine the duration of the assessment depending on the total marks of the
assessment.

Assessment dates: Please check the Consolidated Assessment Timetable on the staff portal for assessment
dates. All assessments will be in-person assessments in allocated lecture venues on campus and will be invigilated
by academics.

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 FORMAT OF ASSESSMENTS
Where your lecturer prescribes an assessment in the form of an assignment, the following rules will apply:

Assignments should be referenced by using the Obiter stylistic guidelines that are available on the Module Moodle
site. All assignment submissions are to be uploaded on Moodle in PDF format where possible. All assignments
must be checked against Turnitin to ensure that students have included all the relevant sources in footnotes and
the bibliography, have not relied on AI to complete the assignment and have not committed plagiarism.

Your lecturer will create a draft submission section on Moodle where you will be able to upload your draft
assignment and check it against Turnitin. You will have three opportunities to check your draft assignment against
Turnitin on the draft site. The final assignment must be uploaded on Moodle in the space created for submission
of final assignments. Please note that there is no opportunity to submit drafts where it is marked ‘assignments for
final submission’.

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 ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE

ASSESSMENT 1 TBC

ASSESSMENT 2 TBC

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 FEEDBACK ON ASSESSMENTS

Your lecturer will provide general feedback per question in the assessment. No detailed memoranda will be
provided. Feedback will be aimed at informing the student where he/she went wrong when answering the question.
For example, memoranda of assessments, which may include a skeletal outline of the model answer or a
comprehensive model answer, will be made available to you. Your lecturer will provide general comments on
marked assignments.

Mark-related queries must be raised within five days after the scripts for each specific assessment have
been made available. Any requests outside of the five-day period will not be considered. This means that mark
change requests will not be entertained / considered after the five-day period.

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 REMARK PROCEDURE FOR ASSESSMENTS ATTEMPTED DURING THE
SEMESTER

The following procedure does NOT apply to examinations. You must follow the university rules in respect of
applications for remarks of examinations. The Faculty is not involved. If you require a remark of an examination,
please approach the Assessment and Graduation Office, and make an appointment to view your paper. This is
free and will allow you to view the memorandum to assess how your paper was marked. Should you feel that your
paper was marked incorrectly, you can apply for a remark of your paper. The Assessment and Graduation Office
charges a cost for remarks that must be paid by you (the applicant). The paper will be sent to the Faculty to be
remarked. Please note that remarks are not done by your lecturer and your lecturer is not involved in the re-mark
process.

Any queries on in-semester assessments must be raised with your lecturer within five working days
from the date that your lecturer hands out the marked assessments during the lecture.

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 MODULE PURPOSE & LEARNING OUTCOMES
PURPOSE

The purpose of the module is to develop an understanding of the various entities and business structures available in the South
African business world. The student will be adequately equipped to understand and apply the basic theoretical principles relating to
each entity or business structure in a South African context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The student should be able to:

 define and describe the types of business entities that exist such as sole proprietorship, partnerships, close corporations,
business trusts and companies;
 explain how decisions on the appropriate business entity for a particular set of circumstances are made;
 distinguish between the legal nature of each of the business entities;
 explain the advantages and disadvantages of incorporation;
 explain the procedure for formation of a particular business entity;
 explain the documentation and procedure required for registration of particular business entity;
 explain the rules pertaining to internal relations in the different business entities;
 demonstrate an understanding of the rights and duties of respective parties involved in each type of business entity and
the rules applicable to management of different business entities;
 explain how business entities conduct external relations;
 identify who can contract on behalf of a business entity and the consequences of acting on behalf of a business entity
without the necessary authority;
 describe the procedure and consequences of dissolution and termination of business entities;
 describe the procedure for dissolution of a partnership, the ways in which a trust can be terminated and the rules relating
to liquidation of companies and close corporations.

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CORE CONTENT
 Starting a business.
 Partnerships.
 Close Corporations.
 Business Trusts.
 Sole Proprietorship.
 The Companies Act 71 of 2008.
 Companies: legal personality, types of companies and formation.
 Corporate finance: shares, debentures and distributions.
 Groups of companies.

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 VERBS USED IN ASSESSMENTS

This link explains the meaning of the verbs used in assessment, in English,
isiXhosa and Afrikaans:

https://learn.mandela.ac.za/mod/resource/view.php?id=743497

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 MODULE PROGRAMME*
*Given any uncertainties that may occur during the course of the semester, this module programme may be subject to change

SEMESTER 1
TERM 1

WEEK DATE CONTENT PRESCRIBED READING

Introduction Moodle Notes

1 12 – 16 February

Sole Proprietors and Partnership Moodle Notes

2 19 – 23 February
intro
Partnerships Essentialia Moodle Notes
3 26 February – 1 March

Partnerships Liability Moodle Notes

4 4 – 8 March

Close Corporations Formation Moodle Notes

5 11 – 15 March

18 – 20 March (Note: 21 March Close Corporations Liability Moodle Notes

6 is a University Holiday and 22 March is
a university holiday)

Close Corporations Fiduciary

7 25 – 28 March Moodle Notes
duties

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 TERM 2

WEEK DATE CONTENT PRESCRIBED READING

Moodle Notes
8 8 – 12 April Revision

Companies Formation Moodle Notes

9 15 - 19 April

Groups of Companies Moodle Notes

10 22 – 26 April

29 April – 3 May (Note: 01 May Shares Moodle Notes

11
is a Public Holiday)

6 – 10 May (Note: 08 May is Capacity and representation Moodle Notes

12
election day)

Directors’ fiduciary duty Moodle Notes

13 13 – 17 May

Cont. directors’ fiduciary duty Moodle Notes

14 20 – 24 May

Revision Moodle Notes

15 27 – 28 May

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All the best for the semester.

Ms J Maholo

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