UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Accounting Sciences — School of Risk Management
⋄
GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE
MANAGEMENT
Semester 1 Assignment 01 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: RSK4802
Module Name: Governance, Risk and Compliance Manage-
ment
Assignment No.: Assignment 1
Due Date: 20 May 2026
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Unique Number: 354495
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for RSK4802:
Governance, Risk and Compliance Management
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | RSK4802 Corporate Governance and the VBS Looting Saga
Introduction
The King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa, released in its third iteration on 1
September 2009, placed the board of directors at the centre of responsible corporate stew-
ardship (Institute of Directors in Southern Africa [IoDSA], 2009). According to King III, good
corporate governance is grounded in the ethical values of responsibility, accountability, fair-
ness and transparency, and the board carries the primary obligation to ensure these values
are lived, not merely proclaimed (IoDSA, 2009:14). The collapse of VBS Mutual Bank in 2018
stands as the most instructive, and most disturbing, demonstration of what happens when
each of these values is abandoned. Advocate Terry Motau SC, appointed by the Prudential Au-
thority to investigate VBS, described the bank in his forensic report, The Great Bank Heist, as
“corrupt and rotten to the core” (Motau and Werksmans, 2018:2). This assignment discusses
the four pillars of good corporate governance as envisioned by King III and applies each to
the VBS looting saga to show how their systematic violation made the plunder of nearly R2
billion possible.
Page 1 of 13
College of Accounting Sciences — School of Risk Management
⋄
GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE
MANAGEMENT
Semester 1 Assignment 01 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: RSK4802
Module Name: Governance, Risk and Compliance Manage-
ment
Assignment No.: Assignment 1
Due Date: 20 May 2026
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Unique Number: 354495
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for RSK4802:
Governance, Risk and Compliance Management
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | RSK4802 Corporate Governance and the VBS Looting Saga
Introduction
The King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa, released in its third iteration on 1
September 2009, placed the board of directors at the centre of responsible corporate stew-
ardship (Institute of Directors in Southern Africa [IoDSA], 2009). According to King III, good
corporate governance is grounded in the ethical values of responsibility, accountability, fair-
ness and transparency, and the board carries the primary obligation to ensure these values
are lived, not merely proclaimed (IoDSA, 2009:14). The collapse of VBS Mutual Bank in 2018
stands as the most instructive, and most disturbing, demonstration of what happens when
each of these values is abandoned. Advocate Terry Motau SC, appointed by the Prudential Au-
thority to investigate VBS, described the bank in his forensic report, The Great Bank Heist, as
“corrupt and rotten to the core” (Motau and Werksmans, 2018:2). This assignment discusses
the four pillars of good corporate governance as envisioned by King III and applies each to
the VBS looting saga to show how their systematic violation made the plunder of nearly R2
billion possible.
Page 1 of 13
