| (1) | An insolvent shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year if his occupation or transactions prior to the sequestration of his estate were such that he might reasonably be expected to keep a record of his transactions, and he failed to keep a proper record of his transactions in the English or the Dutch language and to preserve that record during a period of not less than three years. |
| (2) | For the purposes of this section a proper record of transactions includes all such records, wherein is set forth clearly the nature of all such person's transactions, as (regard being had to his occupation) he can reasonably be expected to have kept. A trader shall be deemed not to have kept a proper record of his transactions unless he kept a record which includes |
| (a) | detailed stock sheets (which shall disclose the cost price of every article on hand at the date of stocktaking which has been purchased by the trader for the purpose of his business) and balance sheets completed for each of his three financial or business years immediately preceding the sequestration of his estate, or if he commenced business less than three years before the sequestration, completed at the commencement of his business and thereafter for each financial or business year preceding the sequestration; |
| (b) | records exhibiting for the period since the commencement of his business or since the commencement of his financial or business year next but one before the financial or business year in which his estate was sequestrated (whichever period is the less) the following particulars— |
| (i) | all property purchased in the course of the business, duly supported by the original invoices; |
| (ii) | all cash receipts and disbursements and the dates thereof; |
| (iii) | a daily record of all property sold on credit, and such a continuous record of all transactions as a trader may be expected to keep in the ordinary course of his business; |
| (iv) | the name of every person indebted to the trader and of every person to whom the trader is indebted and the address of every such person at the time when the indebtedness arose or at any time thereafter; |
| (c) | a record of all cheques drawn during the period mentioned in paragraph (b) and the counterfoils of such cheques, showing clearly, in the case of each cheque and on each counterfoil, the name of the payee, the amount of the cheque, and the date of the cheque: |
Provided that a trader who proves that his turnover for the two years immediately preceding the sequestration of his estate or since the commencement of the business (whichever period is the less), was at the rate of less than R10 000 per annum shall be deemed to have kept a proper record, if the court dealing with the matter in question, having regard to the nature and circumstances of the business, is satisfied that he has kept a sufficient record of his transactions and that the record complies with the requirements of subparagraph (iv) of paragraph (b).
