s82(3) of the Companies Act states that if a company is two or more years in succession in arrears with its returns to CIPC, then it may be automatically deregistered.

CIPC are now placing companies in deregistration process even if they are only one month beyond the deadline for one annual return.

This is their new automated electronic system for “continuous, aggressive bulk deregistrations”.

Add to that their insistence that (1) an annual Beneficial Ownership Return must be submitted and (2) that it falls due on 1 January each year (their list of non BO compliance when you log in switches all companies to non-complaint on 1 January).

That represents three failures of CIPC, the very guardians of the Companies Act, to understand what the Act actually requires.