Read the case study and answer following questions.

Ethics recovery $$ with a state capture hangover

The decline of ethical standards in organisations in South Africa has been thoroughly lamented over the past decade.

The lamentations reached a crescendo as revelations about corrupt practices were revealed before the Zondo

Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

There could be no doubt that the period of state capture seriously damaged the moral fibre of organisations in the private,

public, and state$-$owned sectors$.$ It is unlikely that in our history as a democracy, there have been so many cries for the

restoration of ethical leadership in our organisations.

In a recent survey South Africa ranked first for employees being aware of misconduct in their organisations. Thus, despite

high levels of awareness of ethical standards in South African businesses, and despite leadership and middle

management support to do the right thing, unethical behaviour and practices still prevail. One mitigating factor in this

regard may be that it is exactly the high levels of awareness of ethical standards that make South Africans more sensitive

to observing misconduct in their organisations. It was also encouraging to see that South Africans were quite willing to

report the misconduct that they observed via their internal and external reporting mechanisms. In fact, South Africans

ranked second highest for their willingness to report misconduct in their organisations. The findings also revealed that

South Africa ranked second highest for employees feeling pressured to compromise the ethical standards of their

organisations.

Thirdly, and equally concerning, was the finding that South African employees felt $$ more than in any of other countries

that participated in the survey $$ that honesty is not practiced at work. This leaves one with the troubling question: How

can South African businesses do so well with their ethics management programmes but perform so poorly when it comes

to the actual prevalence of misconduct and to compromising ethical standards and honesty in the workplace?

The explanation for these seemingly contradictory findings might be related to a hangover from the era of state capture.

South Africans might have become so used to the unethical practices associated with the era of state capture, that old

bad habits still prevail and are actively endorsed as part of the "way we do business here".

President Cyril Ramaphosa has reminded us on several occasions that one of the key priorities of the sixth

administration, is to build "a capable, ethical and developmental state". Furthermore, Chapter $10$ of the Constitution

dictates that public administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles, which include, among

others, efficient, economic and effective use of resources.

The Public Service Regulations $(2016)$ provide for a Code of Conduct that outlines behaviour expected of Public Service

Employees to fulfil their constitutional obligation to be professional and ethical. These are important tenets because when

the public sector is driven by factors other than constitutional values and principles, it inevitably leads to failures,

frequently with far reaching consequences.Some of the most severe recent values$-$failures were revealed at the Life

Esidimeni, SARS and the State Capture inquiries and most recently, shocking corruption related to the procurement of

PPE for the Covid$-19$ pandemic.

Given the above, there is therefore an obligation on government departments to actively manage ethics.The National

School of Government $($NSG$)$ has been relentless in its pursuit of enabling public servants to practice accountable

management and to continuously monitor and improve organisational levels of adherence to compliance requirements of

their constitutional mandate and relevant legislation. This is to ensure that citizens receive the quality of services that are

basic to a well$-$functioning democracy.Over the past decade, a number of public officials have attended the NSG$\text{'}$s suite of

good governance, financial and supply chain management programmes intended to equip them with the necessary

capacity in terms of relevant knowledge, skills, behaviours, attitudes and values to practice accountable and transparent

management. QUESTION $1(20$ Marks$)$

In the narrative it is mentioned that the Constitution dictates that public administration must be governed by the

democratic values and principles, which include, among others, efficient, economic and effective use of resources.

Critically discuss the importance of ethical behavior and the effective management of ethics in the public sector.