Tag: King IV

The recent testimony at the Zondo Commission by Dudu Myeni (former Chair of the SAA Board) and Yakhe Kwinana (former Chair of SAA Technical) should be a wake-up call both for directors and the government.

Although it’s recommended in King IV, succession planning is often neglected because it’s an uncomfortable subject. The COVID-19 crisis should act as a wake-up call for organisations to ensure not only that they have a plan to govern an orderly succession for key senior posts, but also an emergency back-up plan.

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.

One of the elephants in the room at this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) was the conspicuous absence of any mention of the need to appoint the right people to the boards of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

As most South Africans eagerly awaited some reprieve from a year of constant and negative bombardment, be this over matters such as a massively contracted economy, rising unemployment, state capture, rising corruption and the threat of expropriation of property without compensation, many had hoped to return from their annual vacation rested, and hopeful to hear some positive news. This did not happen.

We should get some strategy consultants to draw up a set of values that we can post on the walls. Ask them to include the usual suspects - integrity, fairness, honesty, excellence, a passion for customers - and perhaps some cool phrase like ‘at this company we make magic’, ‘losing is not an option’ or ‘we make it happen!’. That should take care of the ethics thing that everybody is getting so worked up about.

There are about 230,000 registered non-profit organisations (NPOs) in South Africa, and getting involved as a board member could make a considerable difference to their sustainability. Join up and make a difference – but avoid some common pitfalls.

Where an attorney had acted in two litigation matters whilst not holding a fidelity fund certificate that is compulsory for all practising attorneys, it was held that the litigation was not a nullity.

If we have both internal and external auditors, we have combined assurance, right? Wrong! For the board of directors to claim that they have discharged their obligations to implement a Combined Assurance Model requires much more than just the appointment of internal and external auditors.

A plethora of corporate governance codes has been written across the world, and in spite of their recommendations which inter alia seek to protect stakeholder interests and shareholder value, many governance failures and organisational collapses continue seemingly unabated.