South Africa: Corporate Governance

Njeri Wagacha sits down with Liz Fanning, Founder and CEO of CorpsAfrica, to explore her transformative journey from Peace Corps volunteer to building an organization dedicated to empowering young people and high-poverty rural communities across Africa. The conversation delves into African-led development, local ownership, youth engagement, and the critical importance of listening to communities as they identify solutions to their own challenges.

International investors look beyond an African startup’s product and growth potential. They also assess whether its corporate structure supports investment, protects intellectual property, enables expansion across multiple markets and can accommodate future funding rounds or an eventual exit.

South Africa's Regulation of Trusts Bill, 2026 proposes the most significant overhaul of trust law since 1988, introducing comprehensive compliance obligations, beneficial ownership transparency, and enhanced regulatory oversight. While aimed at strengthening accountability and aligning with international anti-money laundering standards, the Bill raises critical questions about practical implementation, institutional capacity, and the balance between regulatory rigor and administrative feasibility.

As artificial intelligence moves from experimentation to everyday business practice across South African organisations, a critical gap is emerging between AI policy development and actual governance implementation. While many companies have established AI guidelines, few have mechanisms to ensure these policies are followed or that AI delivers intended outcomes, creating an urgent need for independent assurance through internal audit functions.

When a shareholder's political exposure becomes a regulatory or reputational risk, businesses often discover they lack the framework to respond effectively. Without pre-agreed exit mechanisms, companies face deadlock...

Research shows that most organisations capture only a fraction of their environmental footprint, with 75-90% of emissions often sitting within value chains that remain unmeasured. This analysis examines the structural blind spots, data limitations, and governance gaps that cause systematic underestimation of environmental impact, and explores what stronger environmental governance frameworks should look like.

Our research shows that almost nine in ten 85.9% mid-market firms intend to increase or maintain their investment in sustainability this year.

IT governance is a structured framework aligning IT investments with business goals and managing associated risks effectively.

As 2025 comes to an end, I have taken time to reflect on what my team and I at SNG Grant Thornton have learned this year, and what we believe organisations should be watching as they plan for 2026.