CIPC: A Deeper Look At How It All Works – Part 3/3

Welcome back to another chapter of DID YOU KNOW? Where we break down everything business and finance simply for SMEs to understand. We continue our three-part miniseries looking at how CIPC works and if you have not read Part 1 Click Here & Part 2 Click Here yet please take the time to go and read through it so that you can follow along.

Functionality

• Registration of Companies, Co-operatives, and Intellectual Property Rights
  • Trademarks
  • Patents
  • Copyright
• To disclose Information on its business registers and the maintenance thereof
• To promote education and awareness of Company & Intellectual Property Law

In our last 2 chapters, we covered the different types of businesses you can register as well as we briefly wrote about Intellectual Property Rights with regards to (Trademarks, Patents as well as Copyrights).  Now we focus on the next level of lesser, less-known functions of CIPC (I see a pattern of syntax usage LOL) and with this chapter, we will describe the functions and how a few government departments are interconnected with CIPC, but also provide links directly to the source so stay tuned for an intensive chapter about CIPC.

Accountability:

We will begin with a very interesting tool from CIPC. Once you have created your user account – which is an extremely useful tool that allows you to do simple due diligence on companies, directors, shareholders, and members you wish to partner or collaborate with.  It doesn’t have an official name so we will call it “Find Your Ass Out” and its main function is to do a general overview of how many other businesses that person(s) is connected to, or if the CC or Pty Ltd is in deregistration, or even blacklisted to not operate, as well as outstanding annual return issues. WOW, that is really a fantastic tool to have in your arsenal.  You can think of it as a detective tool when you get that weird feeling in your stomach when something does not feel right (you know what I am talking about).

CIPC eService Portal:

Gone are the days of traveling to CIPC to stand in a line or waiting on the phone for a consultant to assist you with a simple enquiry or question you may have in the back of your head that just happened to pop-up from nowhere. Initially, the eService portal was extremely frustrating to use but over time it improved, and now it is useable, but is it user-friendly?  Sure if you know what you are doing. So if you fall into the percentage that doesn’t know how to use it, then to my surprise CIPC has a YouTube channel dedicated to educating you on how the different functions work, as well as a few other things that you could find useful if you like consuming useless knowledge:

CIPC YouTube Video Tutorials:

• CIPC eServices Introduction
• How to Register as a CIPC eService Customer
• How to Reserve a Company Name
• How to Register a Private Company
• How to Change Company Directors
• How to Register a Non-Profit Company

For additional information: Please Click Here

CIPC sister organisations:

If you have not already concluded that CIPC is more than just a place to register your business – it is a full circle beast that provides so many other services.  Of course, we do not speak about it, because customer service in this country is glitchy, due in part to South Africa’s past, so let me break it down for you on how it all connects:

• NYDA (National Youth Development Agency)
  • The institution was established as the structure to address youth development issues at National, Provincial, and Local government levels. The existence of the NYDA should be located within the broad context of South Africa’s development dynamics. Like many developing countries, there is a large population of youth, those between the ages of 14-35 represent 42% of the total population.  Given the youthful nature of the South African population, much of the socio-economic challenges faced by the nation, including poverty, inequality, unemployment, and poor health are largely encountered by this sector.

For additional information: Please Click Here

• SEDA (Small Enterprise Development Agency)
  • SEDA’s mission is to develop, support, and promote small enterprises throughout the country, ensuring their growthand sustainability in coordination and partnership with various role players, including global partners, who make international best practices available to local entrepreneurs.

For additional information: Please Click Here 

• SEFA (Small Enterprise Finance Agency)
  • The primary mandate of SEFA isto provide development finance to SMMEs and Cooperatives.  SEFA has identified franchising as one of the growth areas that can foster SMME development and address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.

For additional information: Please Click Here 

• DTIC (Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition)
  • The Department was established after the merger of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Economic Development Department. A dynamic industrial, globally competitive South African economy, characterised by meaningful economic transformation, inclusive growth and development, decent employment, and equity, built on the full potential of all citizens.

For additional information: Please Click Here

Side Note: If you are interested in learning more about the above-mentioned departments in greater detail please let us know by e-mailing us at info@sc-admin.co.za as a DYK? Chapter for consideration.

And there you have it, the full look at how these departments all are interconnected with each other to provide the entrepreneur starting out or even the seasoned entrepreneur a helping hand to further accelerate SME development in South Africa which subsequently adds to the country’s overall GDP (an indicator on how the country economy is doing year on year).

We have come to the end of this three-part miniseries about CIPC and we hope you are now well informed to move forward with using CIPC.  Before signing off I would like to leave you with a link to helpful resource articles on the CIPC website that could assist you in better understanding or even operating your business. I believe we have covered CIPC to the best of our ability to deliver you great content so until our next miniseries stay well-informed and keep learning because “knowledge is power”.

For additional information: Please Click Here