Ethical leadership will unlock the development potential of Africa

Posted on September 29, 2022

Professor Natasja Holtzhausen of the School of Public Management and Administration is an advocate for social justice, making sure every voice is heard and ensuring that those that cannot protect themselves are protected. Her research and teaching activities focus on ethics and whistle-blower protection.

Her work on ethics has resulted in several accolades and opportunities to contribute to ethical leadership in South Africa and Africa. She was recently appointed as a member of the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council (GEAC), whose main objective is to provide independent oversight, advice, advocacy, and civil society mobilisation to fight corruption and promote integrity in the Gauteng City Region. The Council was established in 2017 as a provincial civil-society-led governance structure to fight the scourge of corruption that has plagued the province in its public administration responsibility.

Prof Holtzhausen, who chairs one of the work streams of GEAC that focuses on the legislative framework, has contributed to the development of implementable anti-corruption policies and strategies aimed at making the public administration space truly developmental for all its people, with government acting as enabler to ensure a better, sustainable and just future. In this regard, she stated: I have witnessed the destruction that corrupt leaders wreak on an organisation and we need effective policies and strategies to combat that.

According to Prof Holtzhausen, who also serves on the National Anti-Corruption Strategy working group, agility, technological adaptation and, most importantly, ethical leadership are key to driving development. Trust in government can be restored only if public value is seen to be justly administered with no corruption, she said, and added that her continued involvement in structures such as GEAC will enable her to make valuable and practical contribution to the practice of public administration in an equitable manner.

Prof Holtzhausen is regularly invited as a guest speaker to address audiences on aspects relating to corruption, whistle-blower protection and work-integrated and service learning. 

Read the Biennial Report of the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council 2022

 

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