ANSWERS) Semester 2 2025 - DUE 3
September 2025
MULTIPLE ANSWERS ASSURED EXCELLENCE
Question 1
Key facts in the scenario
1. Asset 1:
o Erf 201 Meadowlands Township
o Owned by Xolani (full ownership)
o Leased to Zanele
2. Asset 2:
o Farm Moreson
o Xolani only has a usufruct (a limited real right of use
and enjoyment) — he is not the owner.
3. Instruction:
o Draft and register a notarial bond over both assets in
favour of Moses as security for a loan.
Step-by-step legal reasoning
1. Nature of a notarial bond
, A notarial bond is a type of mortgage over movable
property (general or special) registered in the Deeds
Registry.
Special notarial bond: Over specified movable property
(e.g., machinery, equipment).
General notarial bond: Over all the debtor’s movable
property, but does not confer real rights until possession is
taken (except under the Security by Means of Movable
Property Act 57 of 1993 for certain bonds).
A mortgage bond (not notarial bond) is used for
immovable property — and this is registered not by a
notary, but by a conveyancer.
2. Asset-by-asset analysis
(a) Erf 201 Meadowlands Township
This is immovable property.
You cannot use a notarial bond over immovable property.
Security over immovable property is created via a
mortgage bond, not a notarial bond.
Since you are a notary, you cannot register a mortgage
bond unless also acting as conveyancer. A notarial bond is
legally inappropriate here.
, (b) Usufruct over Farm Moreson
A usufruct is a personal servitude — it is a limited real
right to use and enjoy another’s property.
You cannot mortgage or bond property you do not own.
However, a usufruct itself (the right, not the land) can be
ceded or hypothecated in some cases, but this is rare and
depends on the terms of the usufruct and consent of the
bare owner.
Even if hypothecation were possible, this would be over a
personal right, not the land itself, and registering it as a
notarial bond over immovable property is not valid.
3. Conclusion for Question 1
You cannot execute Xolani’s instruction to register a
notarial bond over these two assets as security for Moses
because:
1. Erf 201 is immovable property — must be secured by
a mortgage bond, not a notarial bond.
2. The farm is not owned by Xolani — he has only a
usufruct, which cannot serve as security without the
bare owner’s consent and cannot be mortgaged in the
ordinary sense.