DEPUTY MINISTER MASINA TO SPEAK AT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SEMINAR

DEPUTY MINISTER MASINA TO SPEAK AT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SEMINAR

The Deputy of Trade and Industry, Mr Mzwandile Masina will deliver a keynote speech at a Corporate Governance and Ethics Seminar that will hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria on Friday, 20 March 2015.

Delegates including decision-makers in the public and private entities, business organisations, as well as businesswomen who participated in the department’s Corporate Governance Development Programme will attend the event. Deputy Minister Masina will also hand out certificates to participants of the programme. The theme of the Seminar is “Corporate Governance: Our Business, Your Business”

The purpose of the Seminar is to provide a platform for a debate on the importance of good governance and ethical conduct in the private and public sector. Leaders from the public and private sector will communicate what should constitute ethical and good governance in our daily businesses. Speakers will also share measures that can be taken practically to encourage good governance, including measures to curb the scourge of corruption.

The speakers will address issues of board diversity and transformation, the Companies Act and measures to promote good governance, the role of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), as well as trends in both the public and private sectors.

Corporate governance and ethics play an important role in ensuring that companies are managed in a manner that best represents the interests of stakeholders, shareholders, employees and communities. The conduct of companies should ensure that the economic, social, environmental and other relevant factors are not compromised while the company is going about its usual business activities.

The Corporate Governance Development Programme was initiated 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.

The dti has, through the Companies Act, 2008, come up with strategies to promote good corporate governance and ethics. One of the measures introduced for proper corporate governance is the Social and Ethics Committees (SECs) that were introduced to enable companies to take into consideration issues of ethics and how the companies’ decisions impact on stakeholders and the environment.