Stephen Sadie, CEO, CGISA

CGISA is developing a strong reputation for its thought leadership on governance. In 2023, we looked at energy governance. In 2024, we looked at water governance. And in 2025, we looked at transport governance. We are not engineers; our angle has always been to look at the governance aspects.

The global economy has been upended by Trump’s trade tariffs. Although it has paused for 90 days, and while South Africa has a possible tariff of 31%, we must spare a thought for poor Lesotho, which has the highest tariff in the world at 50%.

Nobody really knows how this is all going to end. We certainly live in interesting times. While all this is swirling around us, I thought it may be useful to provide an update on what has been happening at the Institute.

Global CGI

Jill Parratt (CGI past president) and I attended the global CGI Council meeting in London on 1 – 2 May 2025.

There was a lengthy discussion on the reduced trend of members worldwide. Arising from this, the council agreed on five global priority actions:

  • Modernise the curriculum
  • Raise visibility and demand of CGI value
  • Expand CGI presence globally
  • Enhancing global member value
  • Strengthen (internal) governance.

Modernising the curriculum was a key priority. The new curriculum was approved in 2018. There were a range of new developments in the intervening years such as AI, sustainability reporting, cybercrime, etc. There was also discussion arising out of the global brand research project that the qualification took too long to complete, was too costly and too difficult. There was also discussion around the modes of assessment where it was suggested that more flexibility was required. The curriculum also needed to link to the competency standards framework that Council had approved. The key distinguishing feature from a number of competitors was the chartered qualification.

The council approved the CGI Values:

  • Professionalism – we demonstrate competence in the quality of our work and practice the highest standards of governance excellence in the public interest.
  • Inclusivity – we welcome diversity in all its forms and embrace equal opportunities in working together to achieve common goals in pursuance of our purpose.
  • Respect – we listen to and treat others fairly and courteously while embracing diverse opinion for optimal decision-making, relationship building and morale.
  • Integrity – we act honestly, truthfully and openly to build trust with stakeholders and each other in the quality of our outputs and communications.

CSIA

Robert Likhang (past president, CGISA) is the current president of CSIA. Robert hails from Lesotho (the one with the 50% tariff). A successful global governance awards was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last year. The next global governance awards will be held in Mumbai, India in February 2026. We hope that the Southern African delegates will do well this time. The Indonesian Company Secretaries Association has joined CSIA. The Global Governance Voice publication always makes for interesting reading as it highlights governance issues affecting CSIA member countries. 

CGISA qualification

The professional standards committee of the CGI evaluated CGISA in November 2024. We were given the highest rating of five years. Over the years, CGISA has continued to place a lot of emphasis on our qualification. We were the first division to introduce the new curriculum in 2019. I would also like to pay a special tribute to Dr Jacqui Baumgardt for having watched over and guided our qualification for so many years.

Fortunately, we are the only body in Southern Africa to provide a full qualification in corporate governance. Of course, one can do short courses on corporate governance. Or some university courses will include a few lectures here and there on corporate governance, but it is difficult to find a globally accredited qualification such as ours. We continue to see a younger generation entering our profession. These will be the future governance leaders. That is why we take the education of our students so seriously. We only get one chance to provide the strongest possible foundation in corporate governance so that our members can deal with the toughest of challenges they will surely face in their working lives. As we all know, the lapses in corporate governance in both the private and public sectors are endemic. This profession is not for ‘sissies’.

King V™

The King Committee is busy dealing with the multitude of responses to the new IoDSA King V™ Report on Corporate Governance1. It is hoped that it will be available later this year. A big thank you to all our members who provided their input.

King V™ has 12 principles down from the 17 in King IV™. This has made King V™ easier to use and easier for SMEs to apply. There is also a stronger emphasis on sustainability, the environment and climate change even though these are under sustained pressure from the USA.

Marketing

Our sparkling new website was launched in November last year. It is interesting that we are picking up quite a bit of traffic from around the world. Thank you to Prof Mervyn King, FCG, for putting us on the global map. Other countries are certainly interested in what we are doing on the governance front. I always find when I attend global CGI meetings, that other divisions are always quite interested in the kind of governance issues that we deal with at our conferences, publications, webinars, etc. There is never a dull day in Southern Africa.

I am sure you have all noticed the upswing in our social media across various platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Information Management System

We have spent the past two years upgrading our information management system, which is now called SAMMS (Student and Member Management System). We have almost completed the changes to Moodle. This involves maintenance of personal information, billing and payments, CPD, applications to become a student, exam registration and academic records.

A substantial amount of work has been undertaken on rewriting the existing data management system using modern web-based technology and migrating the historical data over to the new SAMMS.

Lastly, we are back scanning years and years of paper files into digital files. Yes, I know we have been around for 115 years. So, you can imagine how much effort it takes to do this. Going forward, all documents will be digital.

We are now in the final phases of completing this project which is going to make the lives of our students and members much easier.

50-Year Membership Certificate

It gave me great pleasure to hand out 50-year membership certificates to those who could make the ceremony on 14 May 2025. I was fascinated to listen to all their stories.  These are only some of the loyal members who have supported our Institute through thick and thin. Without loyal members such as these, we would not be here. As we enter the 116th year of this wonderful Institute, we give thanks for the contribution of our Institute to company secretaryship and corporate governance in the Southern Africa region. As we build on this strong foundation, we are ready to face the governance challenges in the coming years.

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