Finding Space for the B Corporation Within the South African Legal Landscape

Abstract South African law has traditionally only recognised the corporate form as either a means of achieving shareholder wealth maximisation or pursuing non-profit objectives—these two purposes being mutually exclusive. The radically overhauled Companies Act of 2008 sought to, inter alia, reaffirm the concept of the company as a means of achieving both economic and social benefits, and provides some flexibility for directors of a profit company to actively pursue social objects although the board is ultimately mandated to act in the best interests of the company’s present and future shareholders. This chapter surveys the South African legal landscape of social enterprise regulation, and evaluates it from the perspective of the benefit corporation model, identifying impediments to the operation of entities with such dual profit and philanthropic purposes within the existing framework.