By Nyaniso Qwesha
The Zondo Commission spotlighted what can be construed as ethical by a board member, after awkwardly hearing responses from former SAA board member Yakhe Kwinana.
Kwinana’s answers concerned Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, especially when considering the board’s fiduciary duties, level of education, and trust given to SAA board members.
The confusion is that people would typically think education and experience set them apart from other people, and ordinary people can easily trust them. Many companies have failed at experienced professionals’ hands, mainly due to a failure in ethics.
Professional bodies should zoom in on the loss of these companies, consider the impasse these have caused and take the necessary actions to stop the surge.
Through a professional code of ethics, most professionals act ethically in business dealings, but recent events have changed this view.
It remained the question raised by the deputy chief justice recently that, as an educated person, “would the person with your qualification not foresee something sinister with some of the board actions?”
The question was raised in response to the contradictory answers given.
I would not think this is solely something that is happening in the public space only, but rather in all companies, both public and private.
We have witnessed the collapse of various private and public sector companies and the resultant impact in employee suffering.
Ethics needs to be reinforced among all of us, especially those in leadership positions and in positions of trust.
Our actions have unintended ripple effects on society. The likely costs to the employees will be unemployment and thus lost income, resulting in money-related illnesses, not having money to pay for school education and repossession of the owners’ property, as is the case with SAA employees who opted for severance packages.
Let us all stop the scourge.
The reinforcement of ethics will be a welcome intervention, even if ethics education can be introduced in our school curriculum for all to practise.
The Star