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.
