COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL, 2021

PARI and the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) support the Companies Amendment Bill, 2021, specifically the amendments to Section 56 regarding the definition and disclosure of 'true owners' of companies. They argue that current limitations in the Companies Act, which only require the recording of director information, allow public servants to hide conflicts of interest and avoid financial disclosure obligations. The submission asserts that beneficial ownership transparency would help detect fraud, collusion, and corruption in public procurement, and enable the identification of senior public servants who fail to disclose company interests. PARI recommends that South Africa adopt a model without a minimum shareholding threshold for disclosure, similar to Botswana, and that the resulting data be freely and publicly available in an open format.

• Current limitations in the Companies Act prevent the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) from fully identifying public servants doing business with the state because the CIPC only records directors, not the ultimate beneficial owners or shareholders.
• Beneficial ownership disclosure would address systemic failures in financial reporting among senior public servants; for example, a Public Service Commission report from February 2021 found that 21% (638) of Senior Management Service (SMS) members with company interests failed to disclose them, with 11% (69) being repeat offenders.
• PARI argues against the proposed 5% shareholding threshold for disclosure, suggesting instead that South Africa follow Botswana's example by requiring disclosure regardless of the threshold to prevent individuals from intentionally splitting ownership to avoid detection.
• To maximize the utility of beneficial ownership data for verification by civil society and government, the information must be provided in an open data format and be freely accessible without requiring PAIA requests.

APA

Public Affairs Research Institute (2021). COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL, 2021. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ACP_20211031_PARI-PSAM_PublicComments_Companies-Act_v1.015.pdf

Chicago

Public Affairs Research Institute. COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL, 2021. 2021. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ACP_20211031_PARI-PSAM_PublicComments_Companies-Act_v1.015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Public Affairs Research Institute |title=COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL, 2021 |date=2021 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ACP_20211031_PARI-PSAM_PublicComments_Companies-Act_v1.015.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{publicaffairsresearchinstitute2021companies, author = {{Public Affairs Research Institute}}, title = {{COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL, 2021}}, publisher = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2021}, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ACP_20211031_PARI-PSAM_PublicComments_Companies-Act_v1.015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }