Compliance with best practice governance systems by National Sports Federations of South Africa

Abstract

The introduction of the 2002 King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa has placed new emphasis on companies to attain higher and more consistent standards of governance. Based on widely recognised and supported governance frameworks it also inspired a rising expectation of accountability and transparency across every aspect of society and also other types of organisations. Through the establishment of the guidelines found in the King II Report the doors have been opened to sport and its various bodies to draw from the experience of corporations and to make use of some of these guidelines in the development of their own guidelines aimed at their own respective needs and purposes. The sports industry and especially its governing bodies need guidelines for proper governance due to the raised level of interest and impact of sport lately. As a result of the corporatisation of sport and increased professionalism, a greater need for proper business management and governance models within sport becomes apparent. The government has also placed renewed emphasis on the need for sport to become more professional in the manner in which it governs itself. If the sports industry cannot achieve this by means of proactive voluntary action and self-regulation, it runs the risk of legislative regulation, which threatens to undermine the sanctity of flexibility and self-regulation which has been central in the development of sport. This study presents a first attempt to determine the levels of non-adherence by national sports federations of South Africa to the principles of best practice governance, identified as the pillars of good governance. These principles are taken from the King II Report, and also the guidelines developed during the first Governance-in-Sport conference. This, a national study in which all South African national sports federations were approached and asked to participate, carries the support of Sport and Recreation South Africa as well as the South African Sports Commission.