An ethics and governance think tank has been established by University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), with a view to facilitating a national conversation about business ethics in South Africa.

The think tank was formally launched on May 10 at the business school’s campus in Illovo, Johannesburg, and GIBS believes it has the potential to contribute to raising the “understanding, awareness and practice of business ethics in South Africa, and ultimately the moral regeneration of the country”.

It is being launched at a time of growing unease over levels of fraud, corruption and cronyism, as well as a backlash over what has been termed the attempt by certain individuals to ‘capture’ government departments and State-owned enterprises in an effort to improve their business prospects.

The initiative is premised on the idea that companies are not amoral entities whose sole purpose is to maximise shareholder wealth within the parameters of the law.

“Increasingly in the world, and especially in the current South African context, business is expected to take wider responsibilities,” director Gideon Pogrund outlines.

The think tank, Pogrund adds, aims to bring leaders with strong ethical, professional and intellectual credentials together to generate creative insights and ideas, which can be translated into a pragmatic plan of action.

“The think tank is designed to broaden and shift perspectives, and to influence long-term approaches and behaviours. Encouraging and empowering people to take more ethical responsibility within business will give concrete grounds for optimism,” Pogrund concludes.