A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPANY DIRECTORS’ ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE STATUTORY DUTY OF CARE, SKILL AND DILIGENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE

Friedrich Hamadziripi () and Howard Chitimira ()
Additional contact information
Friedrich Hamadziripi: North West University, South Africa
Howard Chitimira: North West University, South Africa

Perspectives of Law and Public Administration, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 38-49

Abstract: This article provides a comparative analysis of company directors' accountability and the application of the duty of care, skill and diligence under the South African and Zimbabwean company law. Notably, Zimbabwe has recently partially codified company directors' duty of care, skill and diligence for the first time in the Companies and Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31] 4 of 2019 (COBE Act), which came into effect on 13 February 2020. On the other hand, the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (Companies Act 2008) of South Africa also partially codified company directors' duty of care, skill and diligence and it came into effect on 1 May 2011. Consequently, South Africa has developed some good academic literature and jurisprudence on the duties of company directors for almost a decade. This is one of the reasons why South Africa's Companies Act 2008 was chosen for a comparative analysis with Zimbabwe's COBE Act on directors' duties. Accordingly, the article discusses the gaps and flaws in the relevant company laws in South Africa and Zimbabwe in relation to the interpretation and application of the directors' duty of care, skill and diligence. This is done to recommend some measures that could be adopted by the relevant regulatory bodies and companies to enhance their directors' accountability in both jurisdictions.

Keywords: company directors; duty of care; skill and diligence; business judgment rule; director accountability. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K33 K34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.adjuris.ro/revista/articole/An10nr2/5.%20Chitimira,%20Hamadziripi.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sja:journl:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:38-49

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Perspectives of Law and Public Administration from Societatea de Stiinte Juridice si Administrative (Society of Juridical and Administrative Sciences) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catalin-Silviu Sararu ().