The Effectiveness of the Public Protector's Office in enhancing ethical conduct: The case of the Vhembe District Municipal Area

Abstract

The main thrust of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Public Protector’s office in enhancing ethical conduct: The Case of Vhembe District Municipal Area. After the attainment of democracy in 1994, South Africa established the Public Protector’s office and other institutions to enhance ethical conduct within the public service. Despite the establishment of the Public Protector’s office, ethical challenges remained a big problem to achieve good governance and efficient service delivery to the masses of Vhembe. This study followed a mixed research methods and employed a descriptive case study design with explanatory features characterised by the sequential explanatory model strategy in which the collection and analysis of quantitative data was done, followed by the next phase of collecting and analysing qualitative data. Participants in this study were Public Protector’s officials, Mayors, Municipal Managers, Civic Organizations and the representatives of the private (tendering) companies found in Vhembe. The empirical data were collected through questionnaire and semi-structured interview schedule and analysed using SPSS and thematic (content) analysis. Data collection and analysis followed the objectives of the study as a framework. The major finding of the study is that the Public Protector’s office is not effective enough to enhance ethical conduct due to its inability and lack of constitutional powers to enforce adherence and compliance with its recommendations after conducting investigations. As a result, this renders the Public Protector’s office ineffective and unable to enhance ethical conduct effectively. The study therefore, recommends that the Public Protector’s office needs to be provided with sufficient resources as well as more constitutional powers to enable it to enforce implementation and compliance with its recommendations.