Accountability has for the longest of times been touted as one of the key pillars of governance, for very good reasons. Can one talk about governance without accountability? Especially when you consider the fact that we are living in a world where complexity is not only the order of the day, but the degree of complexity is also constantly increasing? Amid all the chaos it would be a fallacy to ignore the importance of accountability. Yet, there are often signs that accountability is either not understood at a deep enough level or, where there is a real understanding of the concept, it is not always being practiced as it should – perhaps because we tend to see its applicability for others, but sometimes battle to see how it applies to us, because we know our intentions (or think that we do).
When People Doing the Right Thing Stand Alone
As we grow older, experience bends and reshapes the things we believe. Sometimes we see the reshaping and are consciously aware of where it takes us. Sometimes we only realise long after the fact that the bending happened. I have a long list of items that have been bent and reshaped in my consciousness. I am pretty sure that some of them are not yet in my conscious mind. I was recently reminded of one of my reshaped opinions when I was asked to speak at the University of Johannesburg’s annual Corruption Summit.
There was a time in my career when a younger version of me stood before professionals and told them that they must do the right thing—even when they had to stand alone. I said it with conviction, because it was the right thing to say. But, with more life experience under my belt, I now understand that I had a too narrow view back then.
