Abstract:
South Africa established seven anti-corruption institutions and more than 17 pieces of legislation to combat corruption. However, it seems that there is consensus among pundits that the implementation of South Africa’s anti-corruption legislation has proven ineffective despite the government’s efforts to promulgate sound and progressive anti-corruption legislation. The National Development Plan (Vision 2030) also alludes that South Africa has not suffered from the lack of policies or poor policies, but rather an inability to implement these policies effectively. There is a need to pause, reflect and propose sustainable solutions when the consequences of corruption threaten the developmental goals of South Africa. The primary objective is to create integrity among the jurisdictions by implementing the existing professional ethics and anti-corruption legislation. It is essential to ensure that the former and latter is implemented properly within the Social Sector Cluster in the Gauteng Province to realise the provincial vision of an advanced, approachable and exciting government where people are central in decision-making. The study adopted a mixed methods approach and utilised a case study, as well as a survey based on the dimensions of the ITPOSMO model which is highly recommended for the effective implementation of ethics and anti-corruption initiatives. Since a formal instrument was unavailable to test this model within a selected setting, each of the dimensions were converted and reduced to relevant questions which focused on the difference between design and reality. A literature review was conducted of the international, continental and national perspectives. The study further examined international best practice and focused on selected Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) which have proven with the advent of time effective for the implementation of professional ethics and anti-corruption programmes. Three developing countries, namely: Botswana, Singapore and Georgiashare similar country profiles to South Africa and have markedly improved their rankings on the international ethics and anti-corruption indices. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study identified weaknesses that contribute towards ineffective implementation of professional ethics and anti-corruption legislation within this selected setting. These include, among others, apprehensive decision-making process, nominal provincial approach to resolving alleged cases of unethical conduct and undetermined targets including political will. To address these shortcomings, the study proposes an implementation framework to the body of knowledge of professional ethics and anti-corruption legislation by the departments within the Social Sector Cluster in the Gauteng Province. The framework is based on eight dimensions and most significantly, it advocates a cooperative stakeholder approach by all based on creating an ethical environment to minimise unethical conduct.
