Abstract
This study assesses Virtual Environment Societal Governance (ESG) Activism during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown between January 2021 and December 2022 by Just Share. The study aims to address the gap in literature about virtual AGMs during COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. Existing literature on virtual AGMs in South Africa is mostly focused on the legal framework for virtual AGMs but not so much literature on the Shareholders experience in AGMs. The stakeholder theory provided a theoretical framework for the study. A qualitative approach was taken, and a textual analysis was done on six documents compiled by Just Share about their experiences of virtual AGMs. The major findings of this study revealed that there were technical challenges with virtual AGMs and these affected the flow of communication in the meeting. It was also found that virtual AGMs were convenient for shareholders because they saved shareholders time and money. An unexpected finding was that the depth of communication would also hampered in virtual AGMs because sometimes people were not seen or heard clearly and important aspects of communication such as body language were lost. The study is important because it provides deeper insight to organisations into how to conduct company virtual AGMs in a way that maximizes shareholder participation.