We offer a wide range of legal services, ensuring that our team-based approach delivers innovative, practical and cost-effective solutions to our clients. With offices in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay, we offer accessible and complete legal services to a diverse client base. Local and international affiliations further extend our representation throughout Southern Africa, Europe and North America.
Our leadership team comprised of Sifiso Msomi, Chairperson of the Board, and Joint Managing Partners, Samantha Davidson and Anton Lockem, underscores the firm’s depth of expertise and clear vision for the future while reinforcing a continued commitment to excellence, transformation and diversity within the legal profession.
Here’s a rule to remember: If you concede the foundation, you lose the building. A recent Supreme Court of Appeal judgment is a masterclass in what happens when strategy fails before substance is even tested. It is dressed as a tax case. It is actually a governance case.
If SARS issues an assessment and says you owe tax, they expect you to pay it — even if you believe the assessment is wrong and are challenging it in the Tax Court. For businesspeople, that can mean crippling cash flow pressure long before a dispute is resolved. In a recent Gauteng High Court judgment, Ferreria v Commissioner for SARS (Case no 2024-067035; Pretoria High Court; on 2 February 2026), is a reminder that SARS’ powers are not unlimited.
On 16 January 2026, the Constitutional Court delivered an important judgment for the fuel industry in Tholo Energy Services CC v Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service Case CCT 252/24. The decision addresses the removal of fuel levy goods (‘fuel”) to Lesotho, being a BLNE member state. Although the decision confirms that fuel levy and Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy refunds are subject to strict statutory compliance, it also applies to the refund of excise duty and levies in respect of exports to non-BLNE countries. The decision therefore provides clarity on several long-debated issues affecting cross-border fuel supplies.
Interpretation notes play an important role in the South African tax system, but they are often misunderstood. Businesses regularly encounter them when planning transactions or responding to queries from SARS, and the natural question is to what extent these documents should be followed.
Notice 7143 of 2026
Experts call for stronger enforcement of labour laws
The dangers of social media-driven impulse buying
A Career at Shepstone & Wylie
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