By Stephen Sadie, CGISA CEO

I  have been thinking for some time about the ‘who’ in governance. Who are the people responsible for governance?

As we all know and which needs no repeating here, water systems in Johannesburg and in many parts of the country, are in a state of collapse. So, I thought it would be a good idea to go onto the Jhb Water website and have a look at the people responsible for water governance. I found 14 directors, 11 with photos and three without photos. Not sure what the problem with the three without photos was. I then thought I would click on their photos to find a little more detail about these directors, who are responsible for water in Johannesburg. Guess what – there  is nothing, nada, no further information on their qualifications or their experience. I was interested to see if any of them have any engineering qualifications or engineering experience, or any infrastructure experience. So, the public has no idea on the background of these 14 directors. Wow, talk about transparency Jhb Water! Even NGOs list their directors and their qualifications on their websites.

I then thought about the directors on the nine water boards scattered throughout South Africa. Guess what – only 16 of the 78 non-executive directors have an engineering qualification, according to research by Business Day. If you include  executive directors, engineers average just three seats on a 12-member board.[1] At least Business Day was able to get further than my google research into Jhb Water. Interestingly, the Vaal Central Water board has a non-executive director with a theology qualification. Well, given the crisis around water, I guess someone’s got to provide inspiration from above.

On the other side of the spectrum on governance, one has to look no further than the Sars commissioner, Edward Kieswetter. He inherited a Sars some seven years ago, which had been completely broken by the former commissioner, Tom Moyane. In these seven years, Sars under Kieswetter’s leadership has turned around again, to where it was under the leadership of the late Pravin Ghordan. We remember Edward Kieswetter well, as he spoke at our centenary premier corporate governance conference in 2009, when he was still deputy commissioner at Sars. This example illustrates the absolute importance of appointing the right people to head up institutions. The ‘who’ of governance may turn out to be the most important issue on governance.

In a similar vein, Eskom brought in chair Mteto Nyati, a renowned business leader and former CEO of MTN South Africa and Altron. Together with CEO, Dan Marokane, who  was booted out of Eskom by Zuma and the Guptas under false pretences, has returned to put Eskom on a stable footing. Marokane has impressive qualifications: a BSc in Chemical Engineering (UCT), an MSc Petroleum Eng (London) and an MBA (UCT). When we put strong leaders into place, we get results. The ‘who’ of governance speaks for itself.

King V has at least four principles and probably others which talk to the ‘who’ of governance:

  • Principle 1: The governing body leads ethically and effectively as the focal point of corporate governance in the organization.
  • Principle 2: The governing body governs the ethics of the organization in a way that enables an ethical culture and responsible corporate citizenship.
  • Principle 5: The governing body ensures that its composition is balanced with respect to the mix of competencies, diversity and independence that enables it to discharge its obligations objectively and effectively.
  • Principle 7: The governing body ensures that the appointment and delegation to management promote operational effectiveness and that the respective roles and decision-making powers of the governing body and management are clearly defined.

We need to seriously consider the calibre of people we appoint to governing bodies and especially to those in executive director positions.

Why is it that we find so many examples of poor leadership in the public sector at national, provincial and municipal levels? Why is it that we had such poor leadership in the private sector in Steinhoff, Tongaat Hulett, EOH, Daybreak and many others? Our country deserves better.

We could do worse than looking at our sportsmen and women. Rassie has produced an unbeatable Springbok team. Shukri Conrad has done well with the Proteas cricket team. Our swimmers, our athletes, our golfers, and our netball teams have all made us proud. Who can forget the SA relay team! We need to understand the power of governing bodies, who appoint the coaches, who guide our teams to success. There is so much focus on results in sport that underperforming coaches don’t last long. Nobody wants to support a team that continuously loses. Eventually the supporters start clamouring for change.  We need to give a lot more thought to the people we put into positions of power. We need to focus more clearly on competence and ability to get the job done. Sportsmen and women train endless hours so that when the time comes, they can deliver.

On a positive note, we are extremely proud that three South African members and companies took honour’s at the Global Governance Awards hosted by the Corporate Secretaries International Association at a glittering function on 2 February 2026 in Mumbai.

  • Global Corporate Secretary of the Year:  Elsabe Kirstén, FCG, Group Company Secretary, Old Mutual Ltd, and Chair, CGISA Technical Committee
  • Rising Corporate Secretary of the Year:  Charmaine Manzini, ACG, Executive: Governance and Stakeholder Management, Telkom Ltd
  • Excellence in Governance – Listed companies: Nedbank Ltd

We are also proud of the students who graduated at the awards ceremony held on 19 February 2026 at the Linder Auditorium at the Wits School of Education.  These are the rising generation of company secretaries and governance professionals who will rise to the challenge of improving governance standards, wherever they find themselves in the private or public sector. You can read more about this in this issue of the eZine. These are the new ‘who’ of governance.

The raison d’etre of our Institute is to build leaders in corporate governance. This shapes everything we do, whether it is our qualification, CPDs, conference, integrated reporting awards, webinars and seminars, and publications. Our aim is to focus on the ‘who’ of governance so that we can build better organisations, and a  better South Africa. We want a better future for our children.

[1] Khumalo, K.  (2026). ‘Technical skills dry up in SA water boards’, Business Day, 23 February 2026.  Available at: https://www.businessday.co.za/news/2026-02-23-technical-skills-dry-up-in-sa-water-boards/ (Accessed 24 March 2026).