The board evaluation platform built for King V.
King V is here. The Disclosure Framework is public. The evidence bar has moved. BoardEvaluator maps every King V principle to a real evaluation, and produces the proof to publish.
King V was released by the Institute of Directors in South Africa on 31 October 2025 and supersedes King IV from 1 January 2026. From that date, organisations applying the Code do so against the new 13 principles, the outcomes-based recommended practices, and the public Disclosure Framework.
King V is not a refresh. It is a reframing.
Five shifts matter for board evaluations.
Fewer principles, sharper outcomes
13 principles replace King IV's 17. The Code is now outcomes-based: what your board achieves, not just what it has in place.
A public Disclosure Framework
To claim application of King V, disclosures must be publicly available against a standardised framework. Internal sign-off is no longer enough.
Double materiality, embedded
Sustainability disclosures must reflect both the impact on the organisation and the impact of the organisation, a meaningful uplift on King IV.
AI governance as a board obligation
King V explicitly addresses responsible adoption and oversight of AI, making it a standing board competency, not a delegated IT concern.
Proportionality, with teeth
Practices scale to the organisation, but recommended practices increasingly inform legal standards of care. Apply-or-explain has a sharper edge.
Sources: IoDSA, King V release announcement · IoDSA Foundational Concepts · Clyde & Co, King V on AI Governance
Under an outcomes-based code, an evaluation is no longer the closing chore of the year. It is the primary evidence that the board's practices have produced its required outcomes.
Why evaluations now carry more weight
That is a high bar for an annual self-assessment built in a survey tool. It requires a methodology that pairs quantitative evaluation with qualitative inquiry, maps directly to King V's principle architecture, and produces evidence that can be published, not just filed.
Outputs, not exports.
The Disclosure Framework is an evidentiary instrument, not a checklist. BoardEvaluator generates structured disclosure outputs for each King V principle as the evaluation runs.
Scored coverage
Scored coverage across all 13 King V principles, benchmarked against past cycles and sector peers.
Confidential insight
Themed insight from confidential director interviews and peer evaluation, surfacing dynamics no questionnaire reveals.
Per-principle outputs
Per-principle outcome statements and evidence summaries, ready for inclusion in your King V Disclosure Framework.
See: IoDSA, King V Monitoring and Enforcement Guidance · JSE Ltd, King V Disclosure Framework 2025
Every King V principle, mapped to a real evaluation.
The most concrete way to evidence King V application is to show, principle by principle, how you tested for it. This is the mapping that lives natively inside BoardEvaluator.
Leadership
Board-as-a-Whole · Chairperson · CEO / MD
Ethics
Declaration of Interest · Fit & Proper
Responsible corporate citizenship
Sustainability & ESG (ESGOR)
Strategy, performance & reporting
Board-as-a-Whole · Board Committee
Reporting & disclosure
Governance Status
Role & responsibilities of the board
Board-as-a-Whole · Board Committee
Composition of the board
Board Skills Matrix · Director Independence
Committees of the board
Board Committee (per committee)
Evaluation of board performance
Board-as-a-Whole · Individual Director · Peer-to-Peer
Appointment & delegation to management
CEO / MD · Company Secretary
Risk governance (incl. AI & technology)
AI Governance Status · Data Privacy / POPIA
Stakeholder relationships
Sustainability & ESG (stakeholder track)
Remuneration governance
Board Remuneration Review
Double materiality is the new ESG bar. ESGOR™ already meets it.
King V endorses the double materiality approach: report both how sustainability matters affect the business, and how the business affects society and the environment.
The Celagenix ESGOR framework, Environmental, Social, Governance, Organisational health, Resilience, was designed for this dual lens. The Sustainability & ESG Status Assessment module applies ESGOR to your board's oversight of sustainability, producing disclosure-ready outputs.
IoDSA King V Foundational Concepts, double materiality
Now a board-level obligation.
Boards are expected to oversee the responsible adoption, ethical deployment and risk management of AI, a competency King IV did not require directors to evidence.
BoardEvaluator includes a native AI Governance Status Assessment module. It surfaces whether your board has the composition, policy architecture, risk appetite and oversight cadence to govern AI under King V, and produces the disclosure-ready output to evidence it. See the module ›
You're not behind. You're in the transition window.
Many boards are part-way through a King IV cycle when King V takes effect. The Code accommodates this. The question is how to move forward without losing continuity.
Complete, then upgrade
Complete your current King IV cycle on platform, then upgrade the questionnaire set and disclosure outputs to King V for the next cycle.
One combined cycle
Run a single combined cycle that satisfies King IV close-out and King V opening evidence simultaneously.
Straight into 2026
Initiate the 2026 cycle directly under King V with a baseline assessment, ideal where the last evaluation is more than 18 months old.
Five steps. One cycle. Disclosure-ready by the end.
Scope
Align the cycle to your King V application context, sector and board structure.
Configure
Modules, question banks and committee scopes are set; boards and members onboarded.
Evaluate
Confidential quantitative evaluations on desktop or mobile, with autosave and reminders.
Interview
Celagenix governance advisors conduct confidential qualitative interviews.
Insight & disclosure
Analysis, recommendations and per-principle disclosure outputs are delivered.
King V meets fiduciary duty.
Pension fund boards carry distinct evaluation obligations under FSCA expectations, the Pension Funds Act and increasingly King V.
funds
BoardEvaluator includes pension-fund-specific modules, Principal Officer and Fund Administrator evaluations, that run alongside the standard board evaluation to meet those obligations.
Operational in 17 countries, used by 150+ organisations across listed entities, state-owned enterprises, pension funds, financial services, mining, agriculture, retail and health.
Compliance is the floor. Strategic insight is the point.
Boards that treat King V as the floor, not the ceiling, use the evaluation to surface what the principles can never capture: chairing dynamics, decision velocity, the quality of dissent, the courage of strategic conversation.
Built and run by Celagenix, governance specialists since 2014.
2014
BoardEvaluator is the product expression of more than a decade of governance practice. Celagenix is a specialist sustainability and corporate governance consultancy with offices in Sandton, Gaborone and shortly Windhoek, serving boards in 17 countries through a partnership of senior practitioners.
King V and BoardEvaluator, questions we hear most.
When exactly does King V take effect?
King V was released on 31 October 2025 and replaces King IV from 1 January 2026. Boards reporting on 2026 financial years onward apply King V.
Is King V mandatory?
King V is apply-or-explain, like King IV, but JSE-listed companies, state-owned enterprises and many regulated entities are required by their listing rules or regulators to apply a recognised governance code. In practice, King V applies to most serious South African boards.
Does BoardEvaluator cover all 13 principles?
Yes. See the mapping above. Each principle ties to one or more evaluation modules and produces a disclosure-ready output.
What is the Disclosure Framework, and what must we publish?
The King V Disclosure Framework is the standardised public record of how you apply the Code. Disclosures must be made publicly available, a meaningful change from King IV practice. BoardEvaluator produces per-principle disclosure outputs as part of the standard reporting cycle.
We're mid-cycle on King IV. What do we do?
Three transition paths are available: Bridge, Hybrid or Fresh start. A 30-minute King V Readiness Call will determine the right one for your board.
How does BoardEvaluator handle the new AI governance principle?
Through a dedicated AI Governance Status Assessment module, aligned to the Code's AI oversight expectations.
What about boards outside South Africa?
BoardEvaluator supports the OECD Principles, the UK Corporate Governance Code, the ASX Principles, Mauritius's National Code and several other regional frameworks. King V is the headline mapping; it is not the only one.
How long does a full King V evaluation cycle take?
Typically 6 to 10 weeks end-to-end, depending on board size, number of committees and the depth of qualitative interviews. The platform compresses elapsed time; the advisory layer protects the quality.
Is the platform secure enough for confidential director input?
BoardEvaluator is hosted on AWS with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, audit logs and POPIA / GDPR-aligned data handling. Director responses are confidential by design.
How is pricing structured?
Three packages, Basic, Standard and Premium, scale with the number of business units and the depth of qualitative work. Custom enterprise scopes are available. Pricing is shared after a brief scoping conversation.
Don't wait for the 2026 cycle to find out you're behind.
A 30-minute King V Readiness Call with a Celagenix governance advisor will tell you where your current methodology falls short of the new Code, and what it would take to be ready.
BoardEvaluator is a registered product of Celagenix Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Operational in 17 countries. Securely hosted on AWS. King V is a trademark of the Institute of Directors in South Africa.