Legal exposure
Courts treat King V as the standard of care. Directors who cannot evidence compliance face personal liability under the Companies Act. “We didn't know” is not a defence.
King V · Effective 1 January 2026
Be King V compliant from day one.
King V supersedes King IV in its entirety on 1 January 2026. Unify Today is the end-to-end governance platform that generates your Disclosure Framework, runs your evaluations, and keeps every apply-and-explain decision timestamped, witnessed and defensible.
Aligned toKing V·JSE·FSCA·PFMA·Companies Act
Why this moment is different
Four forces are converging on every South African board at once.
Reputational risk
Your Disclosure Framework is published publicly on your website - permanently visible to investors, regulators, media and competitors.
Regulatory pressure
JSE listings requirements, FSCA, PFMA and sector regulators all reference King alignment. Non-adoption triggers scrutiny from every direction at once.
ESG capital flows
Institutional investors and lenders score governance quality. Organisations that cannot demonstrate King V alignment face higher cost of capital.
From pain to platform
Every manual gap, replaced by a defensible record.
Left column is what your auditor will find today. Right column is what your auditor will find with Unify Today.
Today, manually
With Unify Today
Manual Disclosure Framework - weeks of work annually
Auto-generated Framework - live, board-approved, publish-ready
No audit trail for apply-and-explain decisions
Timestamped evidence vault - every practice, document, decision
Board evaluations on Word forms via email
Digital evaluation engine - anonymous, structured, outcome-linked
Conflict declarations missed - no digital log
Conflict register - annual declarations + meeting-level capture
Independence assessments undocumented
Independence module - all 9 King V factors, rationale recorded
Combined assurance gaps - no heatmap
Assurance heatmap - all defence lines mapped to significant risks
Committee terms of reference lapse unnoticed
Committee lifecycle manager - ToR, attendance, renewal alerts
Double materiality disclosures scattered across reports
Materiality engine - financial and impact materiality unified
Group governance inconsistently applied across subsidiaries
Group framework - cascaded policies, subsidiary dashboards
No real-time governance health view for the board
Live dashboard - RAG status across all 13 principles, board-ready
What you get
Ten modules. One defensible King V programme.
Disclosure Framework
Auto-generated across all 13 principles, board-approved, publish-ready.
Evidence vault
Timestamped record of every practice, document and decision.
Board evaluation engine
Anonymous, structured, biennial - outcomes linked to actions.
Conflict register
Annual declarations plus meeting-level capture, fully logged.
Independence module
All 9 King V factors assessed, with rationale recorded per director.
Combined assurance heatmap
All lines of defence mapped to significant risks.
Committee lifecycle
Terms of reference, attendance, renewal alerts - never lapsed.
Double materiality engine
Financial and impact materiality unified in one disclosure.
Group governance
Cascaded policies and subsidiary dashboards across the group.
Live RAG dashboard
Real-time governance health across all 13 principles.
60%
Reduction in governance admin time
3–5×
Typical year-one ROI on platform cost
8–12 wks
From contract to fully operational
R800k–3M
Avg annual manual governance cost replaced
Built for the Company Secretary
You carry the programme. We carry the paperwork.
Board members interact with Unify Today for ninety seconds a month. You run the platform. The board sees better governance - and you see your weekends back.
- Produce the full evidence trail in minutes, not days, when an auditor or regulator asks.
- Never miss a board evaluation, conflict declaration, or committee renewal again.
- Cascade group policies to subsidiaries with one source of truth.
"When your auditor asks for evidence of your King V programme - not the disclosure, but the records - how quickly can you produce them?"
Honest answers
The five objections we hear every week.
You are not buying software. You are buying your board their personal liability protection.
Start implementation this month and be compliant before your first King V reporting period opens. A specialist will call within one business day.