South Africa has been in the spotlight for its poor governance practices even though various laws, regulations, and frameworks are in place to guide how business should be conducted. Oversights committees, especially the board of directors are tasked with the governance of risk and achievement of organisational goals. Combined assurance is used as one of the tools to promote efficient risk management and mitigate against poor control environment and governance processes. Regardless of legislation and governance frameworks providing direction and tasking the three lines of defense with clear assurance responsibilities, the South African public and private sectors are in shambles.