Tag: RiskManagement

Most South Africans are not gambling more because times are good. Instead, they are gambling more because money is tight. South Africa’s gambling industry generated a record R75 billion in gross gambling revenue during 2024/25. At the same time, the betting segment alone grew sharply from R8.8 billion in 2019/20 to R23.7 billion by 2022/23.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) discussions in South African boards generally default to carbon, community impact and governance process. While those remain essential, they do not tell the full story of organisational sustainability. A business may define sustainability narrowly. However, it still fails if it cannot protect data and recover quickly from cyber disruption in a digital economy.

Most of us do not think we need protection. However, life often proves otherwise. It is easy to dismiss a cover you have never used. That changes quickly in real life. Your phone slips from your hand. It cracks on the kitchen floor. Your geyser bursts without warning. Your car also breaks down after running perfectly the week before.

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role has moved decisively beyond compliance. In a volatile, data-driven economy, finance leaders must now shape strategy, guide decisions and help businesses respond to disruption in real time. The shift is clear. CFOs no longer only report numbers. Instead, they interpret them and explain what could happen next.

When arbitrators and judges assess whether a dismissal was fair, they must apply the objective test. In simple terms, they must decide whether a reasonable person would conclude that the conduct justified dismissal. This assessment must remain unemotional and evidence-based. However, misunderstanding the objective test often leads to incorrect conclusions.

April’s Financial Literacy Month provides an opportunity to reflect on progress. It also highlights where the next phase of financial inclusion must focus. While access remains foundational, the real challenge lies in outcomes. Specifically, credit must deliver sustainable and positive results for consumers. Over the past decade, South Africa has expanded access to financial services. This progress has strengthened financial inclusion across the country.

For decades, businesses assumed that information in the public domain was harmless. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has ended that assumption. By aggregating thousands of public data points, AI can reconstruct strategy, pricing and expansion plans. Under the King V Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa, protecting confidential value in this environment has become a board-level governance responsibility.

Picture a rainy Wednesday morning in Sandton, sometime in the near future. A claims handler opens their laptop. Right away, things move much faster than before. For every new email, the company’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) system drafts a suggested reply. The inbox is also lighter. A public chatbot handles most client and broker queries because it has been trained on policy wordings and continues to improve. Need a meeting? An AI assistant schedules it, sets reminders, and even takes minutes.

Most mid-market businesses in South Africa have technology budgets that look reasonable on paper. They allocate spending to infrastructure. They refresh devices on schedule. More so, they account for software licences and they implement some form of security. As a result, nothing appears obviously broken. However, this is often where technology budget misalignment begins.

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”.