CONTRARY TO conventional wisdom, issues of bribery, fraud and corruption - rumoured to be rife in South Africa's boardrooms - have been overshadowed by praise for this country's practice of good corporate governance. "I have no hesitation in saying SA and the United Kingdom are the leaders in the practice of good corporate governance," says Seamus Gillen, senior adviser to the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (Icsa) in Britain.
Gillen based his finding on research by the SA branch of Icsa. It concluded a sizeable chunk of South African companies was ahead of the global trend in good governance and business practices. Accounting firm Ernst & Young says the business of doing good business occupies centre stage in the list of governance codes in the King III report. "We have a set of very resilient companies here (SA) that have to adhere to the rigid expectations of institutional shareholders," says Charl Kocks, principal ratings officer at Ratings Afrika. Kocks says the mere fact SA companies have had to overcome adversity over the past 30 years has strengthened their resolve to maintain good standards in business.