ADR and Mediation Services in South Africa
Six disciplines. One standard of resolution.
Everything we do is alternative dispute resolution. Nothing is litigated here, which is precisely why legal representatives refer to us and why parties trust the room. MV Inc. mediates family, civil and commercial, Rule 41A, workplace and parenting disputes nationwide, and coaches parties and their representatives before any mediation, convened by anyone.
Family Mediation
Divorce, full parenting plans, maintenance, the division of an estate, the care of children. These are the disputes where the outcome matters less than the relationships that survive it. We mediate them collaboratively, in private, and with the structure the court will later recognise.
Families of substance bring particular complexity: trusts, offshore structures, family businesses, second marriages and the generation coming up behind. Our mediators work with your existing advisors, not around them, so that a settlement is durable in law and in fact.
Civil & Commercial Mediation
Shareholder deadlock, a restraint of trade, a partnership unwinding, a contract that has stopped working. Commercially intelligent mediation resolves these in days or weeks rather than years, and keeps the terms — and the fact of the dispute — out of the public record. Private, efficient and limiting reputational risk.
We sit comfortably alongside boards, in-house legal teams and transaction advisors. Where valuation, forensic or industry expertise is needed, we bring it in under the same duty of confidence, so the parties negotiate on facts rather than positions.
Parenting Coordination
When a parenting plan exists but the conflict does not stop, a Parenting Coordinator provides ongoing, structured decision-making so that day-to-day disagreements do not reach a courtroom unnecessarily — and do not reach the children where that can be avoided.
Appointed by agreement or by court order, the PC works within the existing parenting plan, resolves disputes as they arise and, where necessary, issues directives. It is the most effective safeguard available to high-conflict co-parents, and to the attorneys who would otherwise be briefed for every disagreement.
Rule 41A High Court Mediation
Rule 41A of the Uniform Rules of Court requires parties in High Court proceedings across South Africa to indicate, at the outset of a matter, whether they agree to refer their dispute to mediation. Treated properly, it is not a box to tick: it is the most cost-effective and private moment at which a matter can be resolved — and, in Gauteng Mediation Protocol cases, a risk-assessment and issue-narrowing mechanism in its own right.
We conduct Rule 41A mediations to a documented, court-aligned protocol: notices, agreements to mediate, confidentiality undertakings and settlement memorandums drafted to assist attorneys in producing settlement agreements that can be made an order of court. Your litigation strategy is preserved throughout; only the dispute changes.
Refer a Rule 41A matter → Read: Rule 41A — a practical guide →
Mediation Preparation Consultation and Coaching
Most mediations fail before they begin — a party arrives with a grievance instead of a position, or a legal representative arrives to argue rather than to settle. The MV Inc Preparation Protocol is our structured answer to that: a private consultation and coaching engagement that readies a party, and their representatives, for the room.
We coach parties before a mediation convened by anyone, not only by us. The same protocol is taught to attorneys and advocates in our training programmes and in the Mediation for the Modern Attorney series, so that both sides of the table can do the work.
Book a preparation consultation → Training for practitioners →
Workplace Mediation & Conflict Coaching
Most workplace conflict is never formally resolved; it is endured, until someone leaves or a process begins. We work preventatively — mediating disputes between colleagues and leaders, coaching the individuals inside them, and training organisations to resolve tension before it becomes a case.
Neutral, confidential and without prejudice to any formal process under the Labour Relations Act. Our panel includes a trained restorative justice practitioner, and engagements range from a single mediation to a peer-mediator programme embedded over a year.
A private conversation before anything else.
Tell us, in confidence, what you are facing. We will tell you plainly whether mediation is the right route — and if it is not, who to speak to instead.
Malan Vermeulen Incorporated (MV Inc.)Ground Floor, Quadrum 3, 50 Constantia Boulevard,
Floracliffe, Johannesburg, 1709, South Africa
010 980 5160 · [email protected]