An urgent need for ethics
President’s promised ‘New Dawn’ requires honest, accountable, courageous leadership
THE trying predicament in which the country finds itself at the moment has caused me to want to shine a light on ethical leadership, its role in strengthening social ties and cohesion and how it can be achieved.
The widespread corruption and multitudinous cases of fraud are a constant reminder that elements that serve as indicators for ethical behaviour today can easily be rendered irrelevant tomorrow.
Ethics are to be held to a global standard. This is tricky considering that ethics are a derivative of approved or acceptable societal norms or values of a particular historical conjuncture.
It is challenging enough to develop ethics that adequately cater for the different cultures that live in South Africa and a global perspective, though necessary, exacerbates this.
Differentiating between a leader and leadership is imperative because a leader represents a position in an organisational hierarchy or group while leadership is a legitimate power induced process of influence.
This means that ethical leadership is not just self-serving individuals, but aims at influencing followership groups to adopt certain codes of behaviour and be intrinsically satisfied in reinforcing this behaviour.
An ethical leader will possess the following qualities: high regard for the rule of law and the Constitution, espousal of values of “ubuntu” and accountability, while remaining honest and courageous.
Upon his appointment as the country’s president, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa undertook a commitment to take the country and the nation on the trajectory of a “New Dawn”, ushering in hope to turn the tide on corrupt practices in the government, a process that is underpinned by the principle of consequence management by all transgressors.
For public servants, ethical leadership is especially important as Chapter 10 of the Constitution sets out values and principles which public servants are expected to abide by. These include professional ethics, fostering transparency and accountability.
The scourge of unethical leadership is brought to bear in the public service where disclosures of financial interests by senior management remains a serious indictment – thus far the highest recorded compliance to date was 87% during the 2006/2007 financial year.
The lapse of ethical behaviour is not limited to the public sector; private sector companies and other institutions are also haemorrhaging.
The 2010 World Cup construction collusion by private sector companies unearthed by the Competition Commission and many other cases pertaining to price-fixing affirm the widespread malfeasance.
The issue of ethical leadership remains a challenging one, subjected to rapid cultural changes, especially in South Africa. These changes can serve as either de-emphasisers or motivators of ethics.
A voice of reason comes in the form of Professor Kwandiwe Kondlo, who emphasises the importance of the conscience and consciousness in leadership. A leader should never be void of these two.
For the situation to change, reforms and interventions need to be undertaken. They can begin by universities/ the National School of Government offering integrated and separate ethics courses, making it compulsory as part of the employment process in the public service to take an oath of service and pledge to uphold Constitutional values and principles.
We cannot ignore that ignorance can at times breed disregard of the law, and therefore education and access to information relating to ethics and ethical leadership is important.
In recent times the absence of ethical and moral leadership has led to tragedies such as the Life Esidimeni debacle that has left an indelible mark in the human rights record of the postdemocratic administration.
According to the health ombudsman’s report, the bioethics governing the health sector were last reviewed 50 years ago, and are not in line with the new dispensation’s human rightsbased Constitution.
The setting up of an ethical ombudsman can play a critical role in fostering ethical leadership and begin to prescribe standardised punitive measures; and ethics committees similar to that of Parliament at the workplace can operate as a go-to source and should be accessible to all.
This will promote ethical leadership in a country that desperately needs it and also present it as a phenomenon that requires collective responsibility.
The setting up on an ethical ombudsman can play a critical role in fostering ethical leadership
Advocate Richard Sizani is the chairperson of the Public Service Commission