14 APRIL 1999
Issued by: GCIS
Religions have all emphasised the need to analyse the causes of corruption.
One cause has been constantly emphasised by the Deputy President - we have to inherit a self centred society which worships the self as a god. Religion seeks a neighbour-centred society.
Second cause is that corruption, throughout the world has been a child of affluence. The rise of affluence has coincided with a rise of corruption. Religious communities seek a society which emphasise the removal of property not the growth of affluence.
The faith communities responded t this call for partnerships to rebuild our nation. That has a sad history, a history of denial and dispossession, a history of state sponsored violence leading to poverty and under development, we are conscious that as we seek solutions to crime we must also grapple with the causes of crime.
The faith communities in partnership with the government and political parties sponsored the Moral Summit.
The code of conduct signed at Moral summit must be seen as the beginning of a process that the signatories should take back to their constituencies to explain to and gain commitment from their various branches but also to enrich the document with the input from this engagement with the broader public.
The code covers the following principles which individuals in positions of authority are encouraged to sign, as a commitment to ensuring accountable behaviour.
You Mr Deputy President I am aware, have signed the pledge.
We invite other sectors of society to support and take back to their constituencies the pledge which binds us to Integrity, Incorruptibility, Good Faith, Openness, Accountability, Justice, Respect, Generosity.
Chairperson before we convene moral summit two we will encourage all newly elected members of the national and provincial assemblies to individually sign the code of Ethics.
We seek the active collaboration of the 4th Estate, the media, to publish the ubuntu pledge encouraging every individual citizen
Chairperson we recognise that corruption is a state of mind - an attitude and to some people it may sound simplistic but as the consultation on the 14-15 April correctly observed.
That it is possible to argue that there are two approaches to ethics management. A reductionist ad hoc approach ad an alternative holistic pro-active and integrated approach.
We need to guard against the approach of only a few dominant values embedded in a code of conduct or missions statements of the various stakeholders.
This approach could lead to a policy development process where laws, and commissions of inquiry are established on an ad hoc basis to deal with ethical issues as they arise and are then only implemented in a legalistic structural approach.
The Auditor General and the public protector are instruments established by the Constitution to support democracy and good governance but then can act Post Facto, the question arises who investigates if money spent by the various commissions are value for money or fruitless expenditure.
Let us strengthen civil society and the state to create an ethos that we can be proud of, ensuring that the state and civil society play their separate roles.
That any State is only as strong and ethical as its civil society.
Let us put our shoulders to the wheel, ad organised faith communities. As workers every time a nurse does not attend to a patient and the patient is disadvantaged the nurse breaks the pledge.
As business people every time we attempt to subvert the process - we break the pledge as persons working within the legal system if we are, including judges who break the pledge.
As the Fourth Estate the media be critical but be responsible.
Let us continue to build our land a land in which poverty of body, of mind, will be banished.