In the 12 months under review, just 53 new directors were appointed to the boards of JSE Top 50 companies compared with 126 the year before. This represents a dramatic drop in the board renewal rate from 21% to 9%. 64% of companies had at least one new director join their board.
The majority of new NEDs (95%) have a portfolio career, meaning they currently hold only NED roles.
In 2024, 43% of new directors are women, down from 48% in 2023.
The proportion of new international directors dropped by one percentage point to 40%.
31% of new directors have an industrial background, with 27% coming from the financial services sector.
The average age of new NEDs is 55.7 years, compared with 60.4 for all board members (excluding chairs).
New chairs
No new chairs were appointed during the period covered by our survey.
New executive directors
Two new CEOs were appointed in 2024, both of whom are male and South African, and one is an HDSA.
Four new CFOs, including one woman, were appointed in 2024.
First-time directors
There were 53 directors appointed in 2024, and the proportion of directors joining the board of a listed company for the first time (11) has decreased from 29% in 2023 to 21% in 2024. This contrasts with a growing trend in many other markets of first-time directors joining boards (e.g. in Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Turkey and the US).
Among all new directors (53), 57% (30) were men and 43% (23) were women.
53% (28) of these new directors were HDSA appointments. Of the 53 newly appointed directors, 44 are existing NEDs, 11 are first-time JSE-listed NEDs, two are CEOs, five are CFOs (one of whom is female), one is an alternate executive director and one is a group chief corporate services officer. Of the 11 directors appointed for the first time to a JSE-listed board, six were men and five were women. The percentage of women who are first-timers has fallen slightly from 47.5% in 2023 to 45.4% % in 2024.