Tag: King IV Report

On 27 December 2024, certain sections proposed in the Companies Amendment Act 16 of 2024 and the entire Companies Second Amendment Act 17 of 2024 became effective. In our publication, Overview of the 2024 amendments to the Companies Act 71 of 2008 for Audit Committees and Financial Management, we provide a summary of the key changes now in effect.

Digital governance frameworks are needed to address disjointed oversight and enhance decision-making in today’s complex corporate environments. Despite public outcries about corruption and demands for accountability, the importance of good corporate governance continues to be trivialised.

A new draft of the Companies Amendment Bill has been published. Although the bill clarifies many important company law issues; several ambiguities related to the current act remain. On Friday, 1 October 2021, the Department of Trade, and Industry (DTI) published a new draft of the Companies Amendment Bill, 2021 (2021 Bill) for public comment.

As part of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (SAICA) month-long focus on ethics, we have contributed valuable insights during a webinar on how a good ethical culture is the enabling environment for every activity of the enterprise, how it enhances the quality of all resources, and how it is the regenerative source for an organisation’s trust capital.

Poor governance practices, poor oversight and a lack of accountability lie at the heart of state capture and the large-scale corporate fraud that has dominated newspaper headlines in South Africa over the last three years. It is precisely due to the weaknesses in the governance structures and systems that dishonest and unethical leaders have been able to plunder state resources and commit fraud.

In the run-up to International Women’s Day (8 March) it’s important to note that while half of the South African population and 45% of the employed workforce are female, only 20% of directors of JSE-listed companies are women. New report recommends voluntary target of 30% female board members.

How much is enough when it comes to the pay of executives in South Africa? Is the remuneration system broken? And if so, what can be done to fix it? These are some of the burning questions under the spotlight in a new study by our firm.

South African boards should be looking carefully at King IV’s guidance on board composition and director independence rather than simply trying to impose a one-size-fits-all rule. An overemphasis on independence can actually rob boards of institutional knowledge and experience.

Global demand for greater tax transparency, emanating from corporate scandals such as Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and Nike, is leading the boards and audit committees of South African corporations to ask more difficult questions than ever before about how organisations are governing their tax affairs and managing tax risks. The risk of reputational damage and financial loss is simply too high to be ignored.

In a world where the interconnected and constantly changing relationships between financial, social and environmental issues are becoming more evident, businesses that remain unaware of their impacts and dependencies on their non-financial relationships attract unnecessary risk. Indeed, these organisations also fail to recognise new opportunities for efficiency, growth, resilience and development.