Public Administration and Governance in Democratic South Africa

Abstract

There is a national emergency, and it has become more pronounced as South Africa faces challenges of Ethical leadership in both the private and public sector. Recently the Zondo Commission, Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Commission and Courts of Law released reports that cast light on the conduct of public officials. There have also been several reports by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) dealing with the same matter. This phenomenon is not only unique to South Africa. Reports of multinational companies that have been implicated in unethical and corrupt abound. These include corporate scandals such as those of Enron, WorldCom, Nortel, and AIG. These malfeasances have demonstrated abundantly that corporate leaders are not immune to unethical behaviour (Bedi, Alpasla & Green, 2015; Naidoo, 2012a). What this showed is that the issue of ethics is important in the public sector.