I remember visiting an aunt when I was about 8 or 9 years old. In her living room she had this strange painting on the wall. It depicted, among other things, a few drunkards hanging onto scarcely dressed women, men with round bellies and bags filled with money, but it also contained scenes of serenity and happiness painted next to gentle streams and friendly animals and birds.
Noticing my perplexed fascination, my aunt told me it was called “De breede en de smalle weg” (roughly translated to The Narrow and the Broad Way), and it was a painted depiction of the two paths or choices we can take in our lives. I understood, based on the imagery, what she meant was basically the choice between good and evil.
It was as disturbing as it was profound and I have often thought about that picture in my lifetime. I am grateful that she never minced her words with me. The implications of these two simple choices, even at that young age, stuck by me. Don’t you just miss the days we could have such penetrating conversations with kids.
This year I have seen a definite shift take place within the financial services sector. There has been a renewed effort to hold trading entities, business and organizations accountable for their financial decisions and the management of all the related activities.
But what caused this change? In this article I will briefly look at what I consider to be a few important events and how I think they have, and will continue to, shape our commercial and economic landscape in the next few foreseeable years.
I know this phrase was made famous by Ben, Peter Parker’s (or rather Spiderman from the Marvel Comics franchise’s) uncle. But it’s also true that it’s Sunday afternoon and I have just completed the formal assessment of yet another company instituted course on ethics.
If I recall correctly this has been the 3rd course on ethics alone we’ve had to do this year. A sure indicator that, as a company operating with the auditing and financial accounting vertical, we have committed ourselves to meeting the stringent standard of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) hours and following our industry guidelines.
But I believe calling on businesses to behave in a morally acceptable and ethical way starts with us, the main players in the financial reporting business, to ensure our actions are as faultless as they could be and that we hold ourselves accountable to an even higher standard.
This behemoth of an inquiry, executed by then Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo (Chief Justice from 1 April 2022 until his retirement on 31 August 2024). Besides costing the tax payer an eye watering R1-billion (approximate cost), it signaled a serious break in trust between citizen and government, between law abiding taxpayers and the failure by prosecuting authorities to deliver on their mandates.
These events seriously harmed and dented South Africa’s global standing as a nation of hope and the question everyone asked was where were our checks and balances? How did our government allow such an event to happen in the first place? Why did no one spot this in time?
The world started to shift under our feet, as we and our global partners listened in horror to the unfolding proceedings and testimonies of what was to become known as state capture. It was evident that a key shift was taking place and that this report will be one of the main catalysts in the required cleaning house that will be needed to win back the favor of the international community. Very few of the perpetrators implicated in the report have, as of yet, been charged and prosecuted.
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic many governments came under pressure, to re-establish supply lines, source critical base materials, chemicals and equipment, and to kickstart their economies.
The South African government was no exception and a renewed effort was made to recover as much of the capital spent during the pandemic as possible. The world economy was heading for a recession and in many cases smaller economies even went into depressionary freefall.
Again the South African government was hard pushed to find the much needed capital to fund the current government structure, to stimulate the economy and to continue to provide much needed grants and stipends to assist businesses to find their feet.
As a result of slowed economic growth, we are currently experiencing a tax shortfall and SARS have reported a number of missed revenue targets. I shared an important article a few weeks ago about the current SARS Commissioner's current efforts to collect much needed tax revenues.
The ruling party found themselves floundering at the voting booth in this year's election and as a consequence lost their majority vote for the first time since 1994. It turns out that South Africans believe they deserve more and the voting result clearly indicates that the faux pas of the ruling party has not gone unnoticed. The message from voters was clear that whomever wants to govern needs to show their loyalty and commitment to making the country a better place for all.
For the first time South Africa now enters the unexplored world of coalition politics. Many believe this signals a turning point and that responsible governing, by means of the Government of National Unity (GNU) is now set to return. There is still a lot of back and forth and undeniably, there is a lot of work to be done to correct and change the damage which has been caused to our delicate democracy, but it remains one of the more positive developments in the recent political landscape.
These changes will hopefully start re-creating the kind of environment that can lead to renewed investing, re-establishing trust in South Africa as a stable economy, and hopefully, create a landscape that will allow room for economic recovery and growth. All eyes are fixed on the GNU indeed.
Lastly, the cascade of events mentioned above have gained a lot of momentum and have resulted in a turbulent combination of dissatisfaction being raised by civil society, NGO’s, formal bodies representing business interest and other professional institutions to ensure they begin with the important task of cleaning house.
This has translated into renewed efforts by the various role-players and stakeholders mentioned above, to subject their respective members to a number of ethical training courses, reviewing and tightening down on all types of checks and balances and expecting more from their respective leadership portfolios and plans.
There has also been a significant rise into the introduction and enforcement of various new and existing compliance measures in among other the insurance, investment, banking and other financial services sectors. This will continue to be the case to ensure these institutions can once again become entities that the citizenry and international investors can trust.
Long gone are the days that South Africa was a small and insignificant economy; we have become an important regional voice and we play a significant role within the BRICS portfolio. We can no longer act as if we are new to the global economy game; our actions (or lack thereof) have consequences.
It takes many years of hard work to become a credible trading nation and to become known as hardworking and honest people, and it only takes a few political missteps to throw all of that away. We simply must be seen to act with unity, integrity, and that we, as South Africans, and our institutions and organizations can be trusted.
The goal and intention should be clear for all to see - we need to be better and get back to the essential elements of good management and leadership. We cannot participate in a global economy without having our checks and balances in place, and it starts with all of us as individuals.
In simple business terms this means making sure you have sound budgeting practices in place, you perform accurate accounting, you make above board decisions and that your actions and that of your board is always transparent, open and honest. If not, I suspect you are going to run into trouble sooner or later.
Take the time needed to deeply think about the ethics, integrity and good moral values of your business, your brand promise, your services, your products and your employees and what it is you wish to stand for. We are all part of this country and we all share the responsibility to act in accordance with sound values and moral principles.
Re-establishing ourselves as a country on the global trading map, is not only the task and duty of our government, we are all jointly accountable for the type of the nation we wish to be known for.
Let’s act, in everything we do, with this in mind.
Noticing my perplexed fascination, my aunt told me it was called “De breede en de smalle weg” (roughly translated to The Narrow and the Broad Way), and it was a painted depiction of the two paths or choices we can take in our lives. I understood, based on the imagery, what she meant was basically the choice between good and evil.
It was as disturbing as it was profound and I have often thought about that picture in my lifetime. I am grateful that she never minced her words with me. The implications of these two simple choices, even at that young age, stuck by me. Don’t you just miss the days we could have such penetrating conversations with kids.
This year I have seen a definite shift take place within the financial services sector. There has been a renewed effort to hold trading entities, business and organizations accountable for their financial decisions and the management of all the related activities.
But what caused this change? In this article I will briefly look at what I consider to be a few important events and how I think they have, and will continue to, shape our commercial and economic landscape in the next few foreseeable years.
WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
I know this phrase was made famous by Ben, Peter Parker’s (or rather Spiderman from the Marvel Comics franchise’s) uncle. But it’s also true that it’s Sunday afternoon and I have just completed the formal assessment of yet another company instituted course on ethics.
If I recall correctly this has been the 3rd course on ethics alone we’ve had to do this year. A sure indicator that, as a company operating with the auditing and financial accounting vertical, we have committed ourselves to meeting the stringent standard of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) hours and following our industry guidelines.
But I believe calling on businesses to behave in a morally acceptable and ethical way starts with us, the main players in the financial reporting business, to ensure our actions are as faultless as they could be and that we hold ourselves accountable to an even higher standard.
STATE CAPTURE, THE ZONDO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, AND A BREAK IN TRUST
This behemoth of an inquiry, executed by then Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo (Chief Justice from 1 April 2022 until his retirement on 31 August 2024). Besides costing the tax payer an eye watering R1-billion (approximate cost), it signaled a serious break in trust between citizen and government, between law abiding taxpayers and the failure by prosecuting authorities to deliver on their mandates.
These events seriously harmed and dented South Africa’s global standing as a nation of hope and the question everyone asked was where were our checks and balances? How did our government allow such an event to happen in the first place? Why did no one spot this in time?
The world started to shift under our feet, as we and our global partners listened in horror to the unfolding proceedings and testimonies of what was to become known as state capture. It was evident that a key shift was taking place and that this report will be one of the main catalysts in the required cleaning house that will be needed to win back the favor of the international community. Very few of the perpetrators implicated in the report have, as of yet, been charged and prosecuted.
SARS AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO COLLECT TAXES
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic many governments came under pressure, to re-establish supply lines, source critical base materials, chemicals and equipment, and to kickstart their economies.
The South African government was no exception and a renewed effort was made to recover as much of the capital spent during the pandemic as possible. The world economy was heading for a recession and in many cases smaller economies even went into depressionary freefall.
Again the South African government was hard pushed to find the much needed capital to fund the current government structure, to stimulate the economy and to continue to provide much needed grants and stipends to assist businesses to find their feet.
As a result of slowed economic growth, we are currently experiencing a tax shortfall and SARS have reported a number of missed revenue targets. I shared an important article a few weeks ago about the current SARS Commissioner's current efforts to collect much needed tax revenues.
THE 2024 ELECTIONS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COALITION POLITICS
The ruling party found themselves floundering at the voting booth in this year's election and as a consequence lost their majority vote for the first time since 1994. It turns out that South Africans believe they deserve more and the voting result clearly indicates that the faux pas of the ruling party has not gone unnoticed. The message from voters was clear that whomever wants to govern needs to show their loyalty and commitment to making the country a better place for all.
For the first time South Africa now enters the unexplored world of coalition politics. Many believe this signals a turning point and that responsible governing, by means of the Government of National Unity (GNU) is now set to return. There is still a lot of back and forth and undeniably, there is a lot of work to be done to correct and change the damage which has been caused to our delicate democracy, but it remains one of the more positive developments in the recent political landscape.
These changes will hopefully start re-creating the kind of environment that can lead to renewed investing, re-establishing trust in South Africa as a stable economy, and hopefully, create a landscape that will allow room for economic recovery and growth. All eyes are fixed on the GNU indeed.
PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL BODIES AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
Lastly, the cascade of events mentioned above have gained a lot of momentum and have resulted in a turbulent combination of dissatisfaction being raised by civil society, NGO’s, formal bodies representing business interest and other professional institutions to ensure they begin with the important task of cleaning house.
This has translated into renewed efforts by the various role-players and stakeholders mentioned above, to subject their respective members to a number of ethical training courses, reviewing and tightening down on all types of checks and balances and expecting more from their respective leadership portfolios and plans.
There has also been a significant rise into the introduction and enforcement of various new and existing compliance measures in among other the insurance, investment, banking and other financial services sectors. This will continue to be the case to ensure these institutions can once again become entities that the citizenry and international investors can trust.
CLOSING
Long gone are the days that South Africa was a small and insignificant economy; we have become an important regional voice and we play a significant role within the BRICS portfolio. We can no longer act as if we are new to the global economy game; our actions (or lack thereof) have consequences.
It takes many years of hard work to become a credible trading nation and to become known as hardworking and honest people, and it only takes a few political missteps to throw all of that away. We simply must be seen to act with unity, integrity, and that we, as South Africans, and our institutions and organizations can be trusted.
The goal and intention should be clear for all to see - we need to be better and get back to the essential elements of good management and leadership. We cannot participate in a global economy without having our checks and balances in place, and it starts with all of us as individuals.
In simple business terms this means making sure you have sound budgeting practices in place, you perform accurate accounting, you make above board decisions and that your actions and that of your board is always transparent, open and honest. If not, I suspect you are going to run into trouble sooner or later.
Take the time needed to deeply think about the ethics, integrity and good moral values of your business, your brand promise, your services, your products and your employees and what it is you wish to stand for. We are all part of this country and we all share the responsibility to act in accordance with sound values and moral principles.
Re-establishing ourselves as a country on the global trading map, is not only the task and duty of our government, we are all jointly accountable for the type of the nation we wish to be known for.
Let’s act, in everything we do, with this in mind.