Tag: accountability

In many organisations, operational breakdowns do not stem from incompetence. Instead, they stem from unclear responsibility. When problems arise in the workplace, the most common explanations are predictable: “I thought HR was dealing with that”, “Management should have handled it”, or “That’s not my function”.

Weak accountability, limited skills, and slow consequence management continue to undermine procurement reform. Despite years of regulatory efforts, irregular expenditure and procurement failures persist. These issues have eroded governance and public trust in South Africa.

The IT sector frequently embraces concepts such as the circular economy, sustainability, and ESG. Yet in practice, too many organisations still purchase, deploy, and discard technology with little regard for what follows. The uncomfortable question remains: who takes responsibility for the old equipment when the work is done?

The announcement by Tesla of the 2025 CEO Performance Award for Elon Musk signals nothing less than a reckoning with a fundamental question. What does it really cost to secure not just a top executive, but a visionary? As the board persuades shareholders to “vote yes to robots, and reject robotic voting”, the Tesla CEO pay package forces a stark trade-off.

South Africa has tightened Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylisting in 2023. The country has now been recently removed from the FATF greylist after two years of scrutiny. However, financial crime remains widespread.

In 2025, the retail sector had grown by 4.2% year-on-year. The e-commerce sector is expected to reach R225 billion, reflecting a 150% increase over the past five years. Omnichannel retail capabilities, supported by personalisation, customer data analytics, AI-powered recommendations and automated inventory and storage solutions, help companies gain commercial ground and customer trust in a highly competitive environment.

Mining, until now, has been the sector in South Africa where social and labour plans are a legal requirement. These plans are designed to ensure that while companies take value out of the ground, as is the case for miners, they also leave something of value behind.

Perhaps this is your current situation. Being placed on a performance improvement plan can feel like a punch to the gut. It is feedback, but it also comes loaded with fear, doubt and worry. You may find yourself asking, “Am I failing? Is my job at stake? Do they even want me here?”

Governance conversations everywhere - in boardrooms, conferences, and social platforms - are often punctuated by phrases such as “best practice”, “governance with purpose” and “future-ready boards.” Yet good intentions alone rarely change outcomes.

Industrial operations are, like the rest of the world, facing a fundamental generational workforce change. Today, most baby boomers, those experienced operators aged between 61 and 79, are projected to retire by 2035. As a younger, more mobile generation steps in, the traditional model of long apprenticeships and gradual knowledge transfer is no longer sustainable.