An Analysis of the Readability of the Chairman's Statement in South Africa

Board members and the chairman of the board must provide shareholders and other stakeholders with annual reports that include the chairman's statement. The statement provides an important message to stakeholders concerning financial performance, non-financial information and future outlook of the company. Stakeholders are concerned about the transparency and usefulness of the disclosed as this would have an impact on whether the chairman's message is readable or not. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether messages from the chairman of the board are readable or not. A sample of 40 Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies, for the financial period ending 2021, was selected to meet the study objectives. The Gunning Fog Index (Fog index) was applied to assess the readability of the chairman's statement. The study found that it was difficult to read the chairman's statements for the selected corporations and South African companies.