Abstract
The levels of corruption and unethical conduct among public servants have
significantly contributed to the degeneration of good governance, socio-economic
development and public confidence in public institutions. Despite its
subscription to compliance or rule-based ethics, South Africa’s fight against
corruption has become a symbolic exercise that has not yielded the intended
outcomes. Although the deontological approach has produced meaningful
results in countries such as Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Mauritius,
this has not been the case in South Africa due to the obstinate culture of impunity
and weakening of law enforcement agencies that have dismally failed
to apply the law. Unethical conduct has led to grand corruption scandals
such as the arms deal, state capture, Travelgate and the Covid-19 pandemic
where there has not been any notable consequence management against the
perpetrators. The article is underpinned by unobtrusive research methods
and used a desktop analysis by means of an intensive literature review including
a documentary analysis to draw the key findings. The key findings of
this article reveal that by merely adopting a compliance-based public sector,
the results are not guaranteed. The rule-based approach can only bear the
intended outcomes in the presence of consequence management through
strong institutions that are not dictated to by the political environment.