Accountability Now director Paul Hoffman makes an interesting case for seeking costs from politicians and public servants where they’re deemed responsible for spending money on "baseless and unmeritorious defences" in pointless litigation. The SABC’s Hlaudi Motsoeneng is an obvious target for such a move. Hoffman’s idea is so good it should be taken up by the private sector or at least that segment of the private sector that competes with the public sector in terms of poor accountability. Despite all manner of corporate governance initiatives, we’ve never quite got to grips with the agency problem at listed companies. But as listed companies get substantially bigger, so does the problem. The shareholder capitalism system relies on shareholders being engaged in running companies — not in the day-to-day running, but in their oversight. The day-to-day running is left to a management team, which acts as the agent of the shareholders. The problems arise when large institutional investors...
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