Those at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature's launch of the Sub-forum on Ethics were urged to take ethics in governance seriously by Uhuru Molla
There is no time to waste for Africa and its subcultures to get to grips with ethics, given its intent to be part of the the world development agenda — which has the expectation of good governance — in the welcome to delegates to the Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s launch of the Sub-Forum on Ethics at the Turbine Hall, Johannesburg on March 23 2017.
The honourable Uhuru Moiloa, deputy speaker and chairperson of the standing committee on ethics and privileges, said ethics are marked by their embeddedness in the country’s historical past, and the South African governance system is shaped by a perpetual relational interplay between social, cultural, economic, and political spaces of cohesion.
“This is not an easy subject developing alongside the ushering in of democracy and putting together our new democratic system of government,” said Moiloa. “Those coming into power are getting to grips with how to exercise their power and to do things that ultimately will be regarded as ethical.
“We are the only legislature in this country — provincially, and perhaps nationally, that has an integrity committee — established with the provision that conflict within the public sector will be managed in a disciplined way. This country’s three arms of government all form the essence, applications and validity of the nature in which ethical decisions are taken.”
Moiloa said that the role of social cohesion is manifested in the manner through which popular decisions and policies that influence the whole of society are taken, and that the current institutions of governance are democratic, inclusive and warrant innovative thought in their operational mandates.
“These should find semblance in how they consider the manner in which internal cultural diversity and law-making behaviour are affected by social cohesion,” he continued. “Furthermore, the changing nature of the South African governance culture, where democratic transparency seems to prompt discourse on decision-making, resembles a culture of divergent views in how society should interpret quality service delivery. Arguably, the mushrooming of new and political parties seems to have an immense impact on how culture diversifies governance.
“As significant interventions and steps are geared towards affirming the independence and effectiveness of institutions supporting democracy, the ‘cultural intelligence’ aspects of ethical governance are fast gaining strategic momentum in ensuring the wellbeing of the people of South Africa. Discipline in the separation of powers plays a pivotal role in South Africa today, as it will in the years ahead.”
Don’t leave ethics to their own devices
The issue of ethics in Africa is an ancient one, said the honourable Ntombi Mekgwe, speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, adding that when someone did something wrong within a particular community that person was brought to account and faced consequences.
“The time has come for us to collectively ensure that we come up with common norms, standards, processes and oversight mechanisms that will ensure the fundamental implementation of [a] provincial ethics regime,” said Mekgwe.
“A developmental ethics regime must encompass all necessary ethical measures that are or should be implemented to improve the level of development in [the] under-developed communities of Gauteng.
“This process should be defined by the key aspects of a strong human resource development agenda where integrity serves as a preserve for governance, unhindered by any incomprehension of what social cohesion entails and what ethical governance at both provincial and local spheres of government means. Our leadership credentials should take us as a province into the global mapping of ethics and take the relationship between culture and ethical decision to levels that make, not break, the aura of trust that the communities we represent have on governance.
“As we collectively embark on this ethical journey, it is worth noting that ethics is increasingly a global phenomenon. Failure to prioritise on this subject will result in negative repercussions, which will be felt for decades, if we do not take radical action now.”
Professor Kwandile Kondlo of the University of Johannesburg said: “One is fully aware of the fact that there are macro and micro issues related to the whole topic on contemporary ethical governance, and that the intersection between ethics and governance, public administration and political management is a vast area that requires much more research focus.
“Being ethical, especially at the level of institutional leadership, means answerability to the other and a recommendation to the other or any similarly placed person to do the same. Ethical governance is a mode of governance in which the active trust of citizens is mobilised, understood and sustained. Active trust is one which has to be won, rather than coming naturally from pre-established positions.”
Kondlo explained that ethics is an institution which begins when there is a highly evolved sensitivity to what contributes to the general good of the human being. The opposite of this is unethical governance, where intrigue, mistrust and inexplicit agendas that hang out others to dry pervade the functioning of an institution.
“There are invisible walls separating officials from one another within institutions of governance and ethical leadership is needed to break [them down],” continued Kondlo. “Building trust and destroying suspicions of conspiracy has now become a major challenge, with the major contributor to unethical governance being the increasing promiscuity between the political market and the economic market.
“The challenge is to create spaces where money has no subversive power and authority. The actions and philosophies of organisations are scrutinised by the media and general public as never before. Public trust is as bad as the budget deficit in our economy and [it] is going down. Trust must be won,” he stressed.
Ethical cultures
Professor Deon Rossouw of the Ethics Institute said that the second phase of building ethics, which is now starting, is to make an assessment of the current state of the municipalities and what is needed to inculcate ethics in municipalities and help local government with its anti-corruption initiatives.
“It is easy to get standards on paper but much more difficult to get standards in people,” said Rossouw. In King IV, (the King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa 2016, replacing King III) it is a very clear governance imperative that ethics should not be left to their own devices, but managed and monitored to become ingrained in the [organisational] culture. The governing body should govern the ethics of the organisation in a way that supports the establishment of an ethical culture and one that is prominent in all organisations.
“Ethics is a very simple triangle of good, self and other. What is ethical is when you do not only look at what is good for yourself, but at what is good for the other — the golden rule of always do unto others as you expect them to do to you. We don’t expect people to become saints or angels, but to consider their impact on others through their words and deeds.
“Looking at the governance of ethics, there are three main dimensions, the primary of which is that without leadership commitments, ethics are dead in the water. Governance requires strategy, policy, oversight and disclosure. This requires ethics to be actively managed with people carrying account for governing ethics.”
Rossouw described the third dimension as the management of ethics, which surrounds ethics risk assessment, strategy, code and policies, institutionalisation, monitoring and reporting — all surrounded by the culture of the company.
“You may need to repackage the standards and it is vital that the words on paper be made real, ensuring everyone in the organisation is familiar with these through training and communication, and then ensure adherence,” said Rossouw.
“It is also very important to provide ethical guidance. There are two typical cultures implementing standards — extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic motivation. Often you do it though the mechanism of fear — zero tolerance, one strike and you are out. Very often this approach is right when things have gone very wrong, but there is a downside that if you follow a fear-based approach, people stop thinking for themselves and the name of the game is ‘thou shall not be caught out’.
“What our Constitution has in mind is doing the right thing [even] when no one is watching. When the motivation to do the right thing is inside ourselves, then promoting and maintaining a professional attitude becomes part of an internalised value system.
“Don’t focus on those who do wrong, but give recognition to people who embody the standard. We need a mix of focussing on what we do want, and reinforcing and building people up as the mark of the excellent civil servant.”
Transformational leadership
Leadership is often described as the ability to drive people or a team brought together to achieve a particular objective or goal, said Councillor Busisiwe Modisakeng, chairperson of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Gauteng.
“Current challenges facing our country, and local government in particular, call for transformational leadership — a style of leadership where a leader works with subordinates to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide change through inspiration and executing change in tandem with committed members of a group,” stressed Modisakeng.
“This means that the leadership required at both political and administrative local government level must be equipped with transformational skills and the temperament required to deal with the myriad of challenges facing municipalities on a day-to-day basis.”