Advocate Mureriwa on a Call for Good Corporate Governance in Zimbabwe.
MURERIWA ON A CALL FOR GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN ZIMBABWE. ADV ISIAH MURERIWA LLB (UP) LLM (UP) (Advocate of the High Court of South Africa)
The legal realty is that in Zimbabwe, as in many other economies, those who own companies (shareholders) are different from those who are involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies (managers and directors). This position thus put the managers and directors in a fiduciary relationship vis-a vis the actual owners of companies and providers of capital. The basic duty that managers and directors assume, having accepted this fiduciary relationship implies that managers and directors shall carry out their duties of management and direction of companies in the best interest of their principals with the ultra-most good faith.
Unfortunately the past decade, which many would want to label, the dark error in the economic history of Zimbabwe, bore witness to widespread disregard and violations of this fiduciary relationship by several managers and directors. This is very clear from the spate of corporate frauds and scandals that rocked our media during that period.
In this paper, based on a presentation I gave at the Mt Carmel Institute’s Workshop on Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, in Harare, 11 – 13th of August 2011, I seek to evoke a debate on the role that the law can or does play in the protection of the actual owners of companies against their at-times misguided and often capricious agencies.
In a paper presented to the Mandel Training Centre’s Annual Symposium on the 31 of January 2011, Senior Partner of Scanlen and Holderness, Sternford Moyo started by stating as follows: “The law defines the environment in which business is conducted. It ensures that players are regulated by pre-determined rules of conduct. It reduces the potential for capricious conduct, defines the limits of power exercisable by those in positions of power and control and furthermore defines the manner in
The legal realty is that in Zimbabwe, as in many other economies, those who own companies (shareholders) are different from those who are involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies (managers and directors). This position thus put the managers and directors in a fiduciary relationship vis-a vis the actual owners of companies and providers of capital. The basic duty that managers and directors assume, having accepted this fiduciary relationship implies that managers and directors shall carry out their duties of management and direction of companies in the best interest of their principals with the ultra-most good faith.
Unfortunately the past decade, which many would want to label, the dark error in the economic history of Zimbabwe, bore witness to widespread disregard and violations of this fiduciary relationship by several managers and directors. This is very clear from the spate of corporate frauds and scandals that rocked our media during that period.
In this paper, based on a presentation I gave at the Mt Carmel Institute’s Workshop on Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, in Harare, 11 – 13th of August 2011, I seek to evoke a debate on the role that the law can or does play in the protection of the actual owners of companies against their at-times misguided and often capricious agencies.
In a paper presented to the Mandel Training Centre’s Annual Symposium on the 31 of January 2011, Senior Partner of Scanlen and Holderness, Sternford Moyo started by stating as follows: “The law defines the environment in which business is conducted. It ensures that players are regulated by pre-determined rules of conduct. It reduces the potential for capricious conduct, defines the limits of power exercisable by those in positions of power and control and furthermore defines the manner in