The agent/stewardship corporate governance analysis of soes in zimbabwe's ict sector

Abstract

The paper examined the agent and stewardship models in light of corporate governance breaches in Zimbabwe’s SOEs in the ICT sector. SOEs have been plagued with accusations of poor corporate governance practices. In the agent and steward theory,directors as dictated by Zimbabwe’s Companies And Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31] (2020) and Zimbabwe’s Public Entities and Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10.31] (2018) are deemed to be agents and stewards respectively, care takers, thus having the common law duties of care, trust and acting in outmost good faith on behalf of the company. Zimbabwe has seven SOEs in the ICT sector, this paper inductively assessed the four major ones namely, NetOne, TelOne, Powertel, and Telecel.The paper was guided by the two forenamed statutes which govern the four SOEs. It identified the key tenet duties of a director from the statutes, anchored by the agency theory and the stewardship theory perspectives in governance vis a vi the interviews executed on the four SOE boards and the State actors. The interviews identified the breaches in corporate governance in the boards. These were in turn examined in the eyes of the agent and stewardship models. The paper revealed that these two models, whilst ideal are susceptible to breaches, creating a hub for corporate malfeasances and defected agents. Good corporate governance equates good business. It sends a good signal to the outside world of prospective investors.