Part 5 — Cultivating Our Future Forest

The Call to Action

Southern Africa stands at a critical juncture where the meta-crisis we face demands more than individual action, it requires UmphakathiVuka, a people rising together.

The call in brief

3 reinforcing lenses

5 King V objectives

6 5W1H questions

Southern Africa stands at a critical juncture where the meta-crisis we face demands more than individual action, it requires UmphakathiVuka, a people rising together.

This Call to Action is framed to mobilise leaders and stakeholders to respond to Southern Africa’s meta-crisis through integrated risk management, sound governance and shared accountability. It combines three reinforcing lenses across five objectives.

The objectives provide a common scaffold for action, from strengthening ethical, accountable leadership to integrating risk into strategy, enhancing governance and controls, advancing stakeholder inclusivity and collective action, and building legitimacy through measurable impact, thereby ensuring that responses to systemic risk are coherent, people centred and sustainable rather than fragmented or ad hoc.

The 5W1H structure is used to ensure that every section is practical and answers six implementation questions, i.e. Who must act; What must be done; Where action must occur; When action is required; Why action matters; and How implementation should happen. These are all aligned with the King V core governance themes of ethical leadership, sustainable value creation, prudent control and stakeholder inclusivity and are supported by suggested practical actions for leadership to consider.

UmphakathiVuka as a unifying narrative and moral centre signals that Southern Africa’s risk landscape cannot be addressed through isolated technical interventions alone, but requires people first leadership, institutions and communities to rise together with urgency, shared humanity and a long-range vision for a just future. It brings together the spirit of Ubuntu through shared humanity, the Batho Pele commitment to putting people first, and the Indlulamithi perspective of looking beyond the trees towards a just future. As the golden thread of this report, the UmphakathiVuka mindset ensures that governance is not treated as a technical exercise alone, but as a practical and ethical commitment to collective wellbeing, long-term value creation and national renewal.

Objective 5.1:Strengthen Ethical, Accountable Leadership

King V · Leadership

“When leaders rise for the people, not above them, UmphakathiVuka turns authority into service and power into a promise that no one is left behind.”

Objective Strengthen ethical, accountable leadership as a core strategic capability and risk control, by ensuring that governing bodies and executives consistently demonstrate integrity, competence, responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency in their own conduct and decisions, before expecting it from the rest of the organisation.

The governing body sets the tone and direction of the organisation, which is why King V begins with ethical and effective leadership as its first principle. In South Africa’s current risk landscape, ethical, accountable leadership is no longer a compliance ideal, but a non-negotiable strategic capability and first line of defence against systemic failure, especially in high exposure sectors such as infrastructure, energy and water.

In the spirit of UmphakathiVuka, this means leadership that sees itself as part of a wider forest, acting in the interests of the community and the system, not only the individual tree. This section calls on boards, councils and executives to move beyond aspirational statements and demonstrate values based, people-first leadership through transparent decision making, timely consequence management and clear disclosure of governance outcomes, so that stakeholders can see governance in action and begin to rebuild trust in institutions.

Who · What · Where · When · Why · How

Who: Boards, councils, accounting authorities, executive committees, accounting officers, municipal leadership, SOE leadership, and risk and assurance leaders as trusted advisers, all acting as stewards of the broader UmphakathiVuka, not only their own organisations.
What: Lead ethically and effectively by setting and monitoring explicit expectations for ethical conduct, consequence management and accountability, and by using King V disclosures as a practical accountability tool to explain how leadership decisions affect people, communities and the wider risk forest.
Where: In boardrooms and council chambers, leadership forums, public institutions, State-Owned Enterprises, private sector organisations and professional platforms where leaders shape tone, take decisions and communicate with stakeholders in line with the mindset of UmphakathiVuka.
When: Immediately through visible commitments and behaviour, within 12 months through revised governance practices, performance contracts and disclosure, and over the medium term through consistent, embedded leadership habits and culture change that communities can experience in tangible ways.
Why: Because in an environment of ambient distrust and interconnected risks, stakeholders and communities demand immediate, verifiable evidence of integrity and care, not public relations narratives, and without people centred ethical leadership, risk management becomes superficial and institutions lose legitimacy in the mindset of UmphakathiVuka.
How: By integrating ethical expectations into leadership mandates and Enterprise Risk Management, measuring leadership behaviour, assuring it through independent oversight and using transparent reporting to show how ethics, risk and consequence management are applied in practice to protect and uplift the broader community.

Practical actions

Set clear behaviour and accountability goals for boards and executives and review them regularly with a focus on how decisions affect people and communities.
Publish a short annual dashboard showing key governance issues, actions taken and what changed as a result.
Deal with misconduct and control failures quickly and consistently, with clear escalation and fair consequence management.
Ask employees and stakeholders regularly how they experience leadership and culture and use the feedback to improve.
Treat ethical and leadership failures as formal risks in the Enterprise Risk Management framework, with clear owners, indicators and board oversight.

Synthesis

Taken together, these actions give practical effect to the King V principles of ethical and effective leadership, good governance and responsible corporate citizenship, positioning leaders as custodians of value creation over the long term. By embedding integrity, accountability, transparency, and fairness into decision making, strengthening oversight structures and clarifying roles, they help rebuild trust, improve control effectiveness and ensure that governance arrangements are fit for purpose in an increasingly complex, interconnected risk environment.

King V Principles 1, 2, 5, 7 Objective 5.1 · p138 ↗

Objective 5.2:Integrate Risk into Strategy and Performance

King V · Strategy & Performance

“UmphakathiVuka calls us to see above the trees and to weave risk and resilience into strategy today so that tomorrow’s communities can stand on more certain ground.”

Objective Integrate Enterprise Risk Management into core purpose, strategy, planning and performance so that organisations can navigate Southern Africa’s interconnected risks, protect value and unlock new, people centred opportunities across the wider economy, society and natural environment.

A sound understanding of an organisation’s risks and opportunities begins with recognising that it is embedded within the wider economy, society and natural environment, and depends on their health and resilience for its own sustainable success. Embeddedness means strategy and performance cannot be defined only in financial terms, but must reflect how value is created, maintained and eroded across these interconnected systems, including climate, nature, communities and institutions.

In a complex, fast changing environment where prediction repeatedly fails, leaders must shift from planning for what they hope will happen to preparing for what could realistically unfold, asking sharper questions about the assumptions that sit beneath their plans and what happens if those assumptions are wrong.

This requires clear links between risk appetite, strategic priorities and performance measures, supported by scenario planning, stress testing and forward-looking analytics that are built into every planning cycle, not added as a check at the end.

With an UmphakathiVuka mindset, risk informed strategy becomes a way to protect and grow the whole forest: aligning risk appetite to societal and environmental priorities, using sustainability lenses for all major choices and ensuring that long-term resilience is never sacrificed for short-term gains.

Who · What · Where · When · Why · How

Who: Boards, executive teams, strategy and finance functions, risk and resilience leaders, line managers who own critical objectives and projects, and technology and data teams that support analytics.
What: Embed risk thinking into strategy, budgeting and performance management by linking risk appetite to key strategic choices, testing core assumptions with scenarios and analytics, and including sustainability and community impacts in how success is defined and rewarded.
Where: In strategy and budget cycles, capital allocation decisions, major project approvals, sector and public policy compacts, and in the design of data, analytics and reporting systems that support decision making.
When: At the outset of strategy and planning, before major decisions are locked in, during quarterly reviews and scenario updates, and after major shocks or near misses when lessons can still change the path.
Why: Because strategies that ignore embeddedness, assumptions and systemic risks are likely to fail in execution, damage community and stakeholder trust and deepen the very vulnerabilities that threaten long-term value.
How: By using integrated dashboards, scenario planning, stress testing, pre-mortems, predictive analytics and early warning indicators to connect strategy, risk appetite, sustainability and performance in one coherent, risk informed discipline.

Practical actions

Link risk appetite directly to strategy, budgets and performance measures, so leaders are clear about the limits they must respect.
Test major strategies and projects regularly with scenarios and stress tests, including impacts on people, communities and the environment.
Ask management to show the key assumptions behind strategy, what could go wrong and how resilience is built into the plan.
Use pre-mortems and early warning indicators for major decisions, so risks are seen before they become crises.
Measure performance in a balanced way, including financial, operational, social and environmental outcomes.

Synthesis

Anchoring risk firmly within strategy and performance is central to the King V emphasis on outcomes-based governance, integrated thinking and responsible value creation. When boards and executives treat risk intelligence as a core strategic asset, linked to opportunity, resilience, and stakeholder outcomes, governance structures become more forward looking, decisions become more balanced and transparent, and organisations are better equipped to navigate uncertainty in a way that protects and enhances long-term stakeholder value in alignment with the UmphakathiVuka mindset.

Principles 3, 4, 8, 10 Objective 5.2 · p138 ↗

Objective 5.3:Enhance Governance Structures and Control Effectiveness

King V · Governance Structures & Controls

“Every fair rule, every honest control and every clear line of accountability is an act of Ubuntu in practice. These form the quiet architecture of UmphakathiVuka that allows a nation to trust its institutions.”

Objective Strengthen governance structures and control effectiveness so that governing bodies, committees and assurance providers can exercise informed oversight, respond to risk earlier and support resilient, accountable decision making across the organisation.

To govern requires different skills and competencies than to manage, and non-executive members of the governing body need a sound understanding of how the risk management system and combined assurance can be used for effective oversight. In a volatile environment, governance structures must move beyond compliance-driven oversight towards governance that is integrated, intelligent and increasingly real time, with clear accountability across the three lines model, sharper committee focus and decision-ready risk intelligence. This includes standardised key risk indicators (KRIs), control effectiveness metrics, aligned combined assurance and better board evaluation practices so that oversight improves over time rather than relying on personality or experience alone.

With an UmphakathiVuka mindset, stronger governance architecture is not only about internal order, but about enabling better decisions that protect trust, strengthen institutions and reduce harm across the broader community.

Who · What · Where · When · Why · How

Who: Governing bodies, non-executive directors, board committees, executive committees, risk owners, internal audit, compliance, external assurance providers and other control functions.
What: Strengthen governance architecture by clarifying roles, improving committee effectiveness, standardising control and assurance practices, digitising oversight information and building the governance competence of the board itself.
Where: In boards and committees, across lines of assurance, in assurance planning forums, in risk and control systems and in the performance and evaluation processes of the governing body.
When: Immediately through clearer accountability and better dashboard reporting, within annual planning and assurance cycles through standardisation and alignment, and over time through repeated maturity assessments and board development.
Why: Because fragmented oversight, weak control intelligence and poorly aligned assurance create blind spots that can turn governance weakness into a systemic risk, undermining trust, resilience and timely decision making.
How: By enforcing accountability across lines of assurance, digitising KRIs and control metrics, aligning combined assurance around strategic risks, using recognised maturity assessments, and requiring integrated reporting on control effectiveness and risk response.

Practical actions

Clarify who is responsible for risk, controls and assurance across the three lines model, and hold each role accountable.
Use simple digital dashboards to show key risk indicators, control effectiveness and assurance results in real time.
Standardise how controls are tested and reported, so leaders receive clear and consistent information.
Align audit, risk, compliance and other assurance providers around the organisation’s top risks, so assurance works together.
Assess board and committee effectiveness regularly, using a recognised approach to identify gaps and track improvement over time.

Synthesis

Strong governance structures and effective controls help leaders see further, respond faster and govern with greater confidence in a complex risk environment. When roles are clear, assurance is aligned and oversight is informed by real time intelligence, boards are better able to protect both organisational value and the health of the wider forest. In UmphakathiVuka terms, stronger governance is not only about better control, but about creating institutions that are trustworthy, capable and visibly accountable to the people they serve.

Principles 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 Objective 5.3 · p138 ↗

Objective 5.4:Advance Stakeholder Inclusivity and Collective Action

King V · Stakeholders

“When communities, business, labour and the state choose to walk together, UmphakathiVuka becomes more than a theme. It becomes a lived pact to put people first and build a just future in common.”

Objective Advance stakeholder inclusivity and collective action so that organisations can respond to systemic risks through shared responsibility, coordinated action and people centred value creation across the wider economy, society and natural environment.

A stakeholder‑inclusive approach is essential because organisations both affect and are affected by their stakeholders, and responsible corporate citizenship requires accountability for economic, social and environmental consequences beyond mere legal compliance. This is the practical expression of relatedness and interdependence, which sits at the heart of Ubuntu‑Batho and the UmphakathiVuka mindset. In South Africa’s interconnected risk landscape, many of the most material risks, including infrastructure failure, energy insecurity, safety concerns and social instability, cannot be solved by any single institution acting alone. This section therefore calls on boards and executives to move beyond consultation towards genuine co‑creation with government, business, labour, communities and civil society, supported by clearer stakeholder value frameworks, structured collaboration platforms and shared accountability for resilience outcomes.

Who · What · Where · When · Why · How

Who: Governing bodies, executive teams, stakeholder relationship leaders, government partners, business associations, labour representatives, civil society organisations, community structures and other institutions that hold part of the shared risk.
What: Build a more disciplined and inclusive approach to stakeholder engagement by identifying key stakeholders, clarifying the value the organisation intends to create or preserve for them, managing trade-offs openly and coordinating collective responses to shared risks.
Where: In strategy processes, public-private collaboration forums, sector platforms, community engagement structures, resilience initiatives and Enterprise Risk Management and performance management frameworks.
When: Before strategy is finalised, during major decisions that affect stakeholders, through ongoing collaboration and information sharing, and during crisis response and recovery when coordinated action is most needed.
Why: Because systemic risks demand systemic responses, and without structured collaboration, shared intelligence and joint accountability, organisations will struggle to build resilience, maintain trust or create lasting value in a fragmented environment.
How: By establishing structured collaboration platforms, shared risk registers, aligned response and escalation protocols, joint scenario planning, data sharing arrangements and clear resilience outcomes linked back to internal accountability and performance measures.

Practical actions

Set up regular forums where government, business, labour, civil society and communities work together on shared risks and solutions.
Create shared risk lists with key partners so everyone can see the main risks, how they connect and who is responsible.
Agree in advance how partners will respond and escalate issues when shared risks begin to intensify.
Share early‑warning information and run joint “what if” exercises so partners can prepare together.
Build collaboration into Enterprise Risk Management and performance processes so collective action becomes part of how the organisation works.

Synthesis

Advancing stakeholder inclusivity and collective action is about recognising that no tree survives for long if the forest around it is failing. When leaders work with stakeholders in a structured, transparent and purposeful way, they strengthen trust, improve coordination and create more durable responses to shared risks. In UmphakathiVuka terms, this is how organisations move from isolated action to shared stewardship, helping communities and institutions rise together in a more resilient and inclusive Southern Africa.

Principles 2, 4, 9, 13 Objective 5.4 · p138 ↗

Objective 5.5:Build Legitimacy Through Measurable Impact and Transparency

King V · Citizenship & Legitimacy

“Trust does not rise on promises alone. In the spirit of UmphakathiVuka, it grows when people can see, touch and question the evidence that commitments are being honoured and lives are tangibly improving.”

Objective Restore trust and build institutional legitimacy by showing clear, measurable results and transparent disclosure on how risk, resilience and value creation commitments are being met, not only through legal compliance but through visible impact in people’s lives.

Organisations must not only “walk the talk” but also show, in a transparent and verifiable way, that they are doing so. Sound governance cannot be enforced by law alone, so market discipline and social scrutiny both depend on honest, useful disclosure. In an environment of deep distrust, boards and executives need to demonstrate real progress on service delivery, risk reduction and societal value, backed by clear indicators and independent assurance where appropriate. This means shifting from activity reporting to impact reporting, answering simple questions: What impact have we delivered, how do we know, and who has checked the evidence. Legitimacy also depends on responsible risk taking, with boards overseeing whether the organisation understands its key threats and opportunities, can respond appropriately and can justify the risks it chooses to take in pursuit of strategy, innovation and public value.

Who · What · Where · When · Why · How

Who: Governing bodies, executives, risk and finance leaders, reporting teams, internal and external assurance providers, and key stakeholders who rely on the information.
What: Define and report against clear, measurable indicators for Call-to-Action commitments, combining risk reduction, service delivery, innovation and societal impact, with appropriate independent assurance.
Where: In integrated reports, performance reports, stakeholder updates, board and committee packs and public disclosures that explain progress and gaps in plain language.
When: On a regular cycle, with at least annual public reporting, interim updates and ongoing board oversight of key indicators and risk taking decisions.
Why: Because trust and legitimacy are rebuilt when stakeholders can see tangible progress, honest acknowledgement of shortfalls and responsible risk taking that supports long-term value.
How: By embedding impact indicators and societal value measures into Enterprise Risk Management and performance systems, obtaining assurance over key metrics and communicating results clearly and consistently.

Practical actions

Agree a small set of clear indicators for each Call-to-Action commitment, covering risk reduction, service delivery and societal value.
Include these indicators in board, executive and public dashboards, showing targets, current results and trends in a simple, honest way.
Obtain independent assurance over the most important indicators, so stakeholders can trust the numbers and stories being reported.
Shift reports from listing activities to explaining impacts, including how responsible risk taking has enabled value for people, communities and the environment.
Communicate progress regularly, including where targets are missed and what will be done about it, so legitimacy is built on evidence rather than promises.

Synthesis

Building legitimacy through measurable impact and transparency is the thread that ties the entire Call to Action together. It turns ethical leadership, risk informed strategy, stronger governance and collective action into something stakeholders can see, test and trust. When organisations show clear results, explain their risk taking choices and admit where they have fallen short, they earn the right to ask for continued support and patience. In an UmphakathiVuka mindset, this is how institutions demonstrate that they are rising with, and for, the people they serve.

Principles 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12 Objective 5.5 · p138 ↗

5.6 — Cultivating Our Future Forest

The Call to Action Voice / Hear the Call

Guided by King V, this Call-to-Action invites leaders, institutions and communities to move beyond awareness into active stewardship of Southern Africa’s living risk forest, bringing together ethical leadership, risk informed strategy and performance, stronger governance and controls, stakeholder inclusive collaboration and measurable, transparent impact.

Through the 5W1H lens of who must act, what must be done, where and when action is required, why it matters and how it will be implemented, UmphakathiVuka becomes a disciplined, people first mindset for turning shared concern into coordinated, accountable practice across sectors.

If every sector answers this call, Southern Africa can strengthen ethical culture, improve resilience and value creation, reinforce prudent control and rebuild legitimacy through visible results, so that people and institutions genuinely rise together into a more just, trusted and resilient future.

“Together, UmphakathiVuka calls a people first community to rise in shared humanity, grounded in the spirit of Ubuntu, the Batho Pele commitment to place people at the centre, and the Indlulamithi vision of seeing above the trees towards a just future.”

IRMSA Risk Report 2026/27 — The Call to Action (Part 5)

The Call to Action · p138 ↗