Ethical leadership, accountability and transparency in promoting good governance in the South African public sector

Clearance Certificate No | 2022_FBMSREC 011

Despite the 30 years of democracy, the South African public sector has faced various challenges of poor governance, which include lack of ethical leadership, lack of accountability, lack of transparency and increased corruption. South Africa is therefore, labelled as a country lacking good governance, which hinders the delivery of public services. In 2016, the late Vytjie Mentor, a former African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament (MP) and Mcebisi Jonas, a former Deputy Finance Minister, came forward with the allegations that the Guptas presented Cabinet positions to them. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, South African citizens witnessed numerous incidents of poor accountability from public officials and political office-bearers, while also witnessing the undermining of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 by South Africa's former president, Jacob Zuma. Thus, a study addressing the importance of ethical leadership, accountability and transparency in promoting good governance in the public sector of South Africa is essential and more urgent nowadays than ever before.

The study was underpinned by mixed-methods research and an explanatory sequential research design. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 15 senior management public officials and a semi-structured interview were conducted with five purposely selected senior executive management public officials. The data collected emanated from two selected public sector institutions in South Africa, based on their reputations of consecutive clean audits rooted in good governance. The findings revealed that the existing legislative frameworks, accountability mechanisms and systems located in the South African public sector are inefficient in resolving governance issues such as lack of ethical leadership, accountability and transparency. Due to a lack of appropriate processes and mechanisms, South Africa has encountered several challenges, which have overshadowed the country's growth and positive developments over the years.

The study developed a comprehensive framework to promote good governance in the South African public sector. It thus contributed to the Public Administration discourse in the areas of leadership and public sector governance. A further benefit to the academic discipline is that the study highlights the significance of the theoretical underpinnings of good governance. Confronted with the immense obstacles that hinder the promotion of good governance in the public sector of South Africa, the study’s practical contribution is that the developed framework can be adopted specifically by low-performing municipalities and government departments into their daily operations as this framework was developed through lessons learnt from the two selected public sector institutions on how to promote good governance. In summary, this framework can also be considered for implementation by the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) at the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA).