Evaluating the effectiveness of the audit committee: A case for protection of the independence of the audit committee under the South African corporate structure

Abstract

The recent wave of corporate governance failures in South Africa has exposed, among others, weaknesses in the realm of the audit committee as an oversight body within the corporate structure, both in private and public sectors. These governance collapses happened, despite the fact that the majority of these companies had audit committees. In this thesis, the provisions relating to the audit committee under the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (‘the Companies Act 2008’) and the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 (‘the PFMA’) are analysed, with a particular focus on the adequacy of the promotion and protection of the independence of the audit committee within the corporate structure in South Africa.