Contract law provides a legal framework within which persons can conduct business and exchange resources, with the knowledge that the Courts will uphold their agreements and, if necessary, enforce them.
What is a contract?
A contract in South African law is classified as an obligatory agreement, it therefore creates enforceable obligations. In the broadest definition, a contract is an agreement between two or more parties enter into with the serious intention of creating a legal obligation.
Requirements
For a contract to be considered valid and binding in South Africa, the following requirements but not limited hereto must be met:
There must be a meeting of the minds (consensus ad idem) between the contracting parties.
The parties must have the necessary intent (animus contrahendi).
The agreement must have certain and specified terms.
The necessary formalities must be observed.
The content of the agreement must be certain.
The agreement must be lawful.
The contractual obligations must be possible of performance.
Offer and Acceptance
The rules of offer and acceptance constitute a useful, but not essential, analytical tool in understanding the formation of contracts.
An offer is a statement of intent in which the offeror expresses the performance and the terms to which he is prepared to bind himself. For an offer to be valid, it must be; definite, complete, clear and certain.
An offer, being a unilateral declaration, it does not in itself give rise to a contract. Only upon valid acceptance does an enforceable contract arise.
Acceptance is an expression of intent, for an acceptance to be valid, it must be; unconditional, unambiguous, consciously accepted by the person to whom it was addressed and compliant with the relevant legislation.
The general rule in South African law follows the information theory, which requires actual and conscious agreement between the contracting parties, such that agreement is established only when the offeror knows about the offeree's acceptance.
Agreement by WhatsApp
In the case of Kgopana v Matlala (SCA) (unreported case no 1081/2018, 2-12-2019) the court found that an agreement by WhatsApp is not any different to any other agreement if it is compliant with the requirements of a contract.
In this specific case, however, the requirements of a contract were not met and the WhatsApp messages could not be interpreted as a binding agreement.
If you require more information, please feel free to contact Xander Naudé, from Naude Attorneys and he will assist you with the necessary information - email: xander@naudeattorneys.com
Comments