The African Philosophy of Ubuntu: Possible Driving Force, Ethical Leadership and Good Governance, South Africa’s Local Government Sector

Description

Page: 1728-1732

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17827831

Karabo Mokganya and John Ntshaupe Molepo (Department of Public Affairs, Faculty of Humanities, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa)

The Scholastic trail within the interface of ethics and leadership has dwelt much on the right and wrong that have emerged from the unethical practices and challenges within the public sector, which we agree has become a significant global issue, contributing to poor governance. The current spate of unethical practices and corruption scandals affecting both the private and public sectors has garnered attention to this paper, as it undermines public confidence in the people of South Africa. The researchers of this paper argue that without ubuntu among leaders, it is likely to lead to a poor working relationship, unethical practices, and poor governance. Leaders who practice Ubuntu will be more interested in the well-being of followers, as these are people responsible for the implementation of organizational objectives. There have been studies on ethical leadership; however, the majority of these studies were aimed at professionalizing service delivery and overlooking the concept of ubuntu values among leaders and followers. Therefore, this study takes the liberty to correct the shortcomings as it attempts to use the African Philosophy of Ubuntu as a possible antidote to moral problems, which gives birth to poor working relationships between the leader and followers, leading to poor governance and unethical practices, which ultimately jeopardizes the delivery of public service. The engine of this paper is empirical and has highlighted major patterns that lead to the above-mentioned challenges. Paucity speaking on literature has mainly established a paradigm shift in the argument between epistemologies’ lens of Ubuntu philosophy, that failure to practice the indigency lens of Ubuntu values will leave us with the above-mentioned challenges. The researchers concluded with a recommendation that the African Philosophy of Ubuntu, as a possible antidote, be adopted as it is one of the concepts that is always overlooked, and it carries more weight to enhance good working relationships between leaders and followers, ethical leadership and good governance.