Public and Private Sector need to work together on Corporate Governance - Deputy Minister Masina
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mzwandile Masina says it is imperative that public and private sectors work together in promoting and practising ethical corporate governance in South Africa. Deputy Minister Masina was speaking at a Corporate Governance and Ethics Seminar hosted by Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) in Pretoria today.
The purpose of the seminar was to provide a platform for a debate on the importance of good governance and ethical conduct in the private and public sectors. The theme of the seminar was “Corporate Governance: Our Business, Your Business.”
“Cooperation between the public and private sectors on corporate governance issues is crucial because corporate governance has either a negative or positive impact on the country. If companies collapse and end up closing down because of corporate governance failures, this will result in retrenchments. As government, we are concerned about unemployment and would not want to see companies closing shop and exacerbating the problem,” said Masina.
He added that it was in the interest of government for the boards to run companies properly and ethically.
“We are not only interested in seeing efficiency and diversity on the boards of companies but we are putting mechanisms in place to ensure that there is transformation. One of these is the Corporate Governance Development Programme which was initiated by our department to promote the principles of good governance espoused in the Companies Act and the King Code of Governance Principles. Further, it seeks to facilitate transformation of company boards to reflect the demographics of South Africa, hence women became the first group to be targeted for training. Approximately 200 women have been trained to date,” added Masina.
Masina also said women representation on boards in South Africa was less than 3%. He implored delegates at the seminar, to work together to change the status quo, which he described as alarming.
“We need to see more Black people and more women taking their rightful places on the boards of companies. Government is taking the lead in this regard. We have strived for 50% of women on the boards of State-Owned Entities. Private companies must be ready to be led by women. History will judge all of us harshly if we continue to exclude women from the decision-making structures,” said Masina.
He emphasised that women must be assisted to be ready for positions on the boards and expressed his wish that women who participated in the dti programme would be appointed in boards of various companies because they are capacitated and well-equipped after going through the training.
Masina emphasised that the dti’s Black Industrialists Programme, which he is leading, will ensure that companies that get the financial and non-financial support that the department will be providing have significant women representation. This, he said was one of the mechanism that the department will utilise to assist in the transformation of the economy and achieving diversity in the board of companies.
“Through the Black Industrialists Programme we aim to ensure that real transformation of the economy is achieved. The programme will ensure that we bring new industrial actors into the network of productive industrial assets as well as financing the development of new industrial assets,” said Masina.
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