CIPRO Registers Telkom Prospectus

CIPRO has achieved yet another milestone yesterday by registering the Telkom Prospectus as well as Summary Prospectus. This came about as a result of the government’s restructuring process, which included selling part of its share in Telkom to the public. In preparation for this event, the Government launched in October a nationwide educational campaign and on 27 November to 23 January the Government ran a registration campaign. This process of selling part of its shares is know as "TELKOM SHARE OFFER", which has two main categories The General Offer which is open to all South Africans and The Khulisa Offer which is open to all South African individuals and stokvels. In order for Government to sell its shares in Telkom, a document known as a prospectus has to be compiled and registered by our Office.

27 November 2002
Registration of 100000 CCs

A milestone registration was achieved this morning when the Registrar of Companies and Close corporations and current Acting-CEO, Adv. Werner Johnson registered a historic hundred thousandth (100 000) close corporation. Nthabiseng Suppliers Enterprice ("enterprice" spelled according to client's specifications) CC-2002/100000/23 was registered earlier this morning as the hundred thousandth close corporation. It was historic in that it was for the first time since the establishment of this office that 100 000 close corporations were registered in a given year.

Comparatively speaking, last year (2001) 86 396 close corporations were registered, whilst 77 000 were registered in the year before (2000). This is a huge leap forward because 10 000 extra close corporations are still expected to be registered before the end of this year.

This will bring a total of close corporation registrations to about 110 000 this year. All credit must go to CIPRO staff, especially the Close Corporations division for their hard work. They worked tirelessly over weekends and sacrificing their lunch hours to achieve this. There's a staff complement of nine (9) people in the CK1 section attending to the registration process; on average it means each staff member will have registered 12 222 close corporations by the end of the year.

A lot has changed at CIPRO since the launch on July 30, 2002.

• Registration forms are now freely available from our website: www.cipro.gov.za or by collecting it from our public counters instead of going to buy from stationery stores.
• Name Reservations can now be done electronically via accredited agents with a turnaround time of 24 hours.
• Members of the public are no longer required to lodge forms in duplicate or triplicate; the colour requirement on all forms has also fallen away.
• Certificates have been introduced as confirmation of registration.

These changes and our dedicated back-office team contributed largely to this milestone achievement.

Launch of CIPRO as Trading Entity

The Company Intellectual Property and Registration Office – CIPRO originated from the merger of the former South African Companies Registration Office (SACRO) and South African Patents and Trade Marks Office (SAPTO). The setting up of CIPRO is part of the restructuring of the South African Government’s Department of Trade and Industry. One of the key strategic decisions taken by the dti is to establish CIPRO as a business agency, meaning it will be a self-sustaining business agency.

The launch of CIPRO took place on the 30th July 2002. The launch meant that CIPRO would now operate as a trading entity and be self-sustaining. The launch was held at VodaWorld in Midrand. Among the guests were Minister Alec Erwin, and Director-General Dr. Alistair Ruiters. The launch was two-fold; there was a main launch in Midrand and another launch at CIPRO. The launch at CIPRO was aimed at our staff. Because of the big number of our staff, it was virtually impossible to have everyone; guests who were more or less 150 and 400 staff under one roof.

We set a satellite link from Midrand to our building so that staff could also see what was happening in Midrand. We received positive responses from our guests and staff about the launch.

At the same time we were launching CIPRO, we also launched our website and our Logo which were unveiled by the Minister.

The core reason for the formation of CIPRO is to increase the efficiency and productivity of registering companies and intellectual property. By being a business agency, CIPRO will be entirely independent in its decision-making and delivery of services.

One of the main objectives of the newly formed CIPRO is to increase overall efficiency and turn-around-time on delivery. By CIPRO becoming a business agency and being paid for its services, it is essential that it becomes an efficient and speedy organisation. The clients are businesses both local and international and CIPRO is often the first port of call for such businesses. By streamlining their delivery and offering a professional and competent service CIPRO will ensure that people want to register their business and intellectual property and also encourage international business to set up companies in South Africa.

ICC Registrations

The South African Intellectual Property Registration Office achieved a milestone on the eve of Cricket World Cup when they managed to grant registrations on the ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP applications that were pending. This was critically significant for the office and the whole country as we are the host nation. Precisely on the 15th January, 2003 all the marks belonging to the ICC DEVELOPMENT (INTERNATIONAL LIMITED) were registered giving the company rights in respect of goods and services mentioned in the applications.