The King IV Code has missed the opportunity to direct boards in SA to specifically focus on governance issues that would assist directors practically in their ongoing activities, and to ensure ongoing compliance with the provisions of the 2008 Companies Act. The move away from the focused and direct approach (contained in King III) has resulted in boards now having to focus on an abstract "integrated thinking perspective", and where everyday governance issues have to be sucked out of the air. Gone is the tick-box approach set out in King III. We now have a document which focuses (correctly so) on ethical considerations of governance, but which seems to water down the importance of the financial considerations of governance. As Tom Wixley, former chairperson of EY, states: "We will see many more African Bank scenarios in future, unless attention is given to this." Although "risk governance" is a strong feature of the new code, the high point appears to be "the governing body [board] ...
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