Police minister Nathi Mthethwa was among the inter-ministerial committee that inspected the notorious KwaMashu hostel.
“King III does fit. The question is just how to apply it,” Mukaddam said. She pointed out that in addition to King III, South Africa had all the necessary legislation, rules and guidelines in place to ensure good governance. However, some had adopted a “tick box” approach to compliance, or simply failed to read the legislation.
“You should be reading and understanding the legislative framework in which you operate,” she said. Noting that no one size fits all, she said basic guidelines for good governance could be applied to any organisation. “It is all founded on integrity.” However, she noted that integrity did not necessarily mean the same thing to everyone, so it was important to specify what was meant by integrity.
Barriers to good governance, she said, included a lack of ethics, a lack of independent thought, greed, a lack of leadership, a lack of courage, no measurable strategic objectives, a lack of timeous information and no accountability.