EDITORIAL: Corporate moral failings need closer attention
SA Inc's reputation takes a dive
"Not my problem,” is probably the typical CEO's response when it comes to the epidemic of corruption in SA. It’s not that they don’t believe corruption impacts their business. You just have to look at Eskom and the litany of scandals there that have proved costly for the economy and legitimate businesses employing thousands of South Africans. There are too many to start counting, but among the most notable would involve the implementation of a procurement policy that said it would only buy coal only from companies that were at least 50% black-owned. While this led to a significant amount of damage as major players left the sector, it transpired in October that it was anything but a legitimate procurement policy. Rather, it was a random verbal directive decreed during the reign of then CEO Brian Molefe. The new board that was installed in February to clean up the utility couldn’t find any evidence of the directive in any policy documents. While the public sector is full of stories of...
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