Our management of social impacts, risks and opportunities includes two core pillars of our sustainable future strategy – health and nutrition and enhanced livelihoods – and spans our critical anchors: purpose-driven culture, food safety and quality (FSAQ), ethical supply chain, safety, health, and environment (SSHE) and responsible marketing. Beyond the cross-cutting nature of many social imperatives, we do not implement a cross-functional approach for managing all social impacts, risks, and opportunities. We manage these issues independently through our group enabling functions: human resources (HR), corporate affairs and sustainability, marketing, manufacturing and procurement. Regulatory compliance is central to our approach, alongside participation in relevant industry initiatives. Management systems, standards and practices are in place for FSAQ and SSHE. Cross-functional working groups and steering committees coordinate activities across the group and exercise integrated oversight.
As a member of the Coalition for Ethical Operations, we support industry-wide efforts to combat unethical behaviour and corruption. Our group ethics framework – comprising code of conduct, ethics policies, mandatory training programmes, whistle-blowing facility, and investigations procedure – is applied consistently under the oversight of the chief legal and corporate affairs officer.
All employees and suppliers must follow our code of conduct, which aligns with our ethics policies. All employees at junior management level and above complete an annual e-learning module on the code of conduct. New hires attend an in-person compliance and ethics induction. Senior management in risk-prone roles complete anti-bribery and anti-corruption training every two years.
Our human rights policy protects individual rights, as well as the group’s assets and reputation. The policy, publicly available on our website, outlines principles for monitoring, managing and reporting human rights impacts and risks. It applies to our operations, suppliers, employees, temporary staff, contractors, service providers and consultants. We conduct internal audits for compliance with ethics and human rights policies through our combined assurance plan. No incidences of non-compliance were found in 2025.
Our anti-bribery and anti-corruption policy explicitly prohibits lobbying, facilitation payments and political donations. Employees must disclose potential conflicts of interest annually or when they arise under our declaration of interest policy. Our gifts, entertainment and hospitality policy requires disclosure of such items given or received. A fraud risk register forms part of our combined assurance plan. We screen current and prospective suppliers for conflicts of interest, sanctions, criminal activity and other ethical concerns.
Our whistle-blowing line, managed independently by Tip-offs Anonymous (a Deloitte division), enables secure, anonymous reporting of unethical behaviour, dishonesty or fraud. The 24/7 ethics hotline supports all local languages and is accessible to employees, suppliers, customers, consumers and the public. Our approach aligns with South Africa’s Protected Disclosures Act, enforcing a strict non-retaliation principle.
All complaints are investigated, with each categorised and assigned within three days. Our investigations procedure ensures consistent process and prompt resolution. Internal audit manages investigations, with a forensic unit and compliance officer forming a triage with HR and audit functions. A monthly ethics report is presented to Exco and tabled at SESCO meetings.
Reported cases declined to 76 in 2025, from 99 the previous year. Of these, 49 have been closed and 26 were unsubstantiated, with one still under investigation. Remedial actions have been implemented and criminal proceedings initiated where applicable.
Our information privacy policy and information security and cyber-resilience policy align with the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) 2013 and EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We have developed roadmaps to enhance cyber resilience across the business, including manufacturing plants, integrating cyber security into business continuity planning. Regular independent assessments measure performance against industry standards and address gaps. We monitor and maintain third-party compliance with cyber security and business continuity requirements.
