Compliance issues in business (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)

Compliance is a strange topic in many businesses. So often it is taken to be a reactive preventative requirement which is necessary expense or cost centre. This is the case in many cases because it is not unusual for many boards to be dominated by people with commercial degrees.
This in itself is not unique because as many would say business needs commercially trained people; which by necessity have one or two legal subjects in their training at varsity; so if everyone on the board or on the management team have similar qualifications, why does one need to bring a dedicated legal human resource on board?

It has always been my experience that the practise of law is very much like the profession of plumber; it is quite conceivable that someone can read a book on plumbing, go to a short course or maybe even watch a few YouTube videos on plumbing; but most experienced plumbers will be quick to tell you that unless you have actually done the actual job and all that that entails; can one truly say that one knows how to plumb.
In law it goes without saying that that litigation will in all likelihood remain the domain of external attorneys; but this very approach ignores the fact that lawyers have in most cases developed the ability to look at situations analytically, in many cases are extremely proactive and if combined with a commercial tendency; have the unique ability to bring a proactive approach to many aspects of businesses; which are traditionally approached reactively.
In addition; new regulations may seem to be restrictive; but in the very restriction lies the potential for taking a strategic advantage over the businesses competitors by exploiting opportunities afforded by the legislation; which has not been recognised by the competition.
It goes without saying that internal lawyers offer a unique opportunity for tactical advantages for businesses.