Top 10 risks South-Africa faces in 2019
IRMSA releases 2019 risk report
The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) released the fifth edition of its Risk Report: South Africa Risks 2019.
According to Christopher Palm, Chief Risk Advisor at IRMSA, the document aims to be an informative and instructive reference to the nation’s top risks at both country and industry level.
Its contents are the result of surveys carried out with ±1028 contributors from a variety of business and risk related roles.
“However, we also see it as an invitation to business, government, the public and risk professionals to work together to solve these challenges and build a better society for the future,” he notes.
What’s inside?
The report considers the top 20 risks at country level and the top 20 risks at industry level, and compares the top 10 to those in the previous three years.
With a foreword from the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, the document provides a wealth of insights and inspiration from leading figures in the risk management field.
Most notably, it contains commentary and guidance from some 85 subject matter experts who not only gauge the risks individually but also offer practical treatments at each level.
A thread prevalent throughout the report is its call to risk professionals to be more than analysts and presenters of its results, starting with Gordhan’s assertion that: “The risk management profession plays a key role in leadership.” Says Palm, “Our members should lead the way by not just reading the document but taking into the leadership discussions, influencing their organisations and communities to do something concrete with the suggested risk responses. We want them to become risk activists!”
According to the study, the top risks the country faces are:
• Structurally high unemployment
• Growing income disparity and inequality
• Failure of governance in the public sector
• Unmanageable fraud and corruption
• Inadequate and/or substandard education and skills development
• Energy price shock
• Labour unrest and strike action
• National policy uncertainty/instability
• Cyberattacks (ransomware, algorithm shutdown of the internet of things)
• Macroeconomic developments.
Industry’s top ten risks are:
• Failure of public governance;
• Inadequate and/or substandard education and skills development;
• Cyberattacks (ransom, algorithm shutdown of the internet of things);
• Information security (data fraud and data theft);
• Microeconomic developments;
• Macroeconomic developments;
• National policy uncertainty/instability;
• Disruptive technologies (AI, internet of things, robotisation);
• Government policy, legislative and regulatory changes and uncertainty;
• Labour unrest and strike action.
Solutions
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The document also investigates available opportunities for improvement.
Palm believes the risk report is the starting point for a national discussion around which solutions to the country’s greatest threats and opportunities can be developed, and that the risk profession has the necessary frameworks, methodologies, tools and information to support the value proposition that this report presents.
“As the only professional body for risk management in South Africa, IRMSA hosts various platforms for both the public and private sectors, bringing a variety of parties together for this very purpose,” he says. “I have no doubt that the Institute can provide the platform needed for government, business and the public to meet and create positive change.”
