11 Inspection of register of beneficial owners

(1) The register of beneficial owners maintained by every legal person or legal arrangement through the resident agent shall be maintained in confidentiality and the following persons of that legal person or legal arrangement are entitled to inspect the register of beneficial owners without any charges—
(a) a director or member of the legal person;
(b) a councillor, founder or supervisory person of the foundation;
(c) a trustee, settlor or beneficiary of the international trust;
(d) a general partner of the limited partnership or a partner of the partnership; (Amended by Act 38 of 2022)
(e) a person whose name is entered as a beneficial owner in the register of beneficial owners (limited to inspection of the person’s name in the register); and (Amended by Act 38 of 2022)
(f) a director, or an authorised representative of the director, of a registrable legal person whose name is entered in the register of beneficial owners. (Inserted by Act 38 of 2022)
(2) A person’s right to inspect the register of beneficial owners under subsection (1) shall be subject to prior notice and other conditions as the legal person or the legal arrangement may impose and the period of inspection shall not exceed 2 hours in a day and access to the register of beneficial ownership shall be restricted to the entries relating to such person only.
(3) The persons referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e) of subsection (1) may request a copy of the register of beneficial owners or an extract of it and the same shall be provided within 10 days.
(4) If the legal person or the legal arrangement through its resident agent unreasonably refuses to allow any of the persons referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e) of subsection (1) to inspect the register of beneficial owners or fails to provide copy of the register of beneficial owners within 10 days, that legal person or legal arrangement commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of level 3 on the standard scale. (Amended by Acts 26 of 2021 and 38 of 2022)
(5) Any person aggrieved by the decision of the legal person or the legal arrangement, as the case may be, for inspection of the register of beneficial owners under subsection (1), or failure to provide a copy thereof under subsection (3) within 10 days of the request, may file an application before the Supreme Court to direct the legal person or the legal arrangement, as the case may be, to allow the person to inspect the register of beneficial owners or to provide a copy of the extract of the register of beneficial owners. (Amended by Act 38 of 2022)
(6) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection (1), in addition to maintaining the register of beneficial owners, a copy of the register in respect of extractive companies shall be filed with the office of the Registrar of Companies and shall be updated by the resident agent from time to time and the said register shall be made available to any person for inspection and for obtaining copies thereof on payment of such fee and in such form as may be prescribed by regulations.