The King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (King IV) was published on 1 November 2016 and includes a sector supplement for non-profit organisations. One implication is that the corporate governance environment in South Africa has changed. NPO boards should consider whether this development necessitates any changes to their existing governance practices. This brief article recommends five governance practices, underscored by King IV, that should be added to agenda items for NPO board meetings.
Although King IV is not law, it comments that ‘a corporate governance code that applies on a voluntary basis may also trigger legal consequences’. King IV further provides that; “The more widely certain recommended practices in codes of governance are adopted, the more likely it is that a court would regard conduct that conforms to these practices as meeting the required standard of care.”
King IV recommends several items, expressly or impliedly, that should feature on the board’s agenda, including:
Source: Ricardo Wyngaard Attorneys - The NPO Lawyer, NPO Legal Issues, Volume 41, November/December 2017
Important Note: The information contained in this newsletter is general in nature and should not beinterpreted or relied upon as legal advice. The information may not be applicable to specificcircumstances. Professional assistance should be obtained before acting on any of the information
Ricardo Wyngaard (Ricardo Wyngaard Attorneys) is passionate about the non-profit sector and has been focusing on non-profit law since 1999. He is a lawyer by profession who has obtained his LLB degree at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and his LLM degree at the University of Illinois in the USA. He has authored a number of articles and booklets on non-profit law and governance. http://www.nonprofitlawyer.co.za