The 2009 King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (King III) brought a maturing of the board’s approach to governance. This approach involved Altron looking beyond the interests of the company’s directors and shareholders to take into account the concerns and issues of its wider stakeholder community, which includes customers, suppliers, employees, custodians of environmental concerns, investors and communities. These concerns are then used to inform our strategy and ensure that we balance long-term social, environmental and economic interests with the primary requirement to maximise the profits of the company.
As a direct result of our early adoption of the principles embodied in King III, we were not only able to produce one of the country’s first truly integrated annual reports, but were materially compliant with King III at the date of implementation. This year the integration of sustainability matters in the business strategy of the organisation progressed further with the appointment of a senior group sustainability manager and the formation of a dedicated sustainability department to, among others, drive the appreciation of nonfinancial issues, including without limitation environmental, social and governance issues, across the group.
Altron follows the principles of good governance set out in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and once again has been included in the JSE SRI index for 2010. We also engaged in several other governance initiatives as a result of our commitment to sustainability. We are signatories to the UN Global Compact, The Copenhagen Communiqué (climate change) and have also been admitted to the Shariah Index, thereby including a group of investors that would otherwise have been excluded. Where the assessment of the directors is that recommended practices are not in the best interests of Altron, this report follows King III in explaining the reasons for an alternative approach to governance. A King III checklist is included at the back of this abridged corporate governance report.
Given that this is an integrated report, we aim to deal with each important aspect of governance only once, where it best applies.
