South African mobile operator, MTN Group, along with eleven other South African companies have taken the lead globally in voluntarily committing to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).
The other eleven signatories include Transnet, Allegiance Air, Oceana Group, Millennium Management, South African Express, South African Airways, Initio Earth Sciences, Investec Group, Netcare Limited, South African Post Office and Inala Technologies.
The UNGC is a strategic policy initiative for businesses. Within the confines of the UNGC the businesses committ to “aligning their strategies and operations with 10 universally accepted principles”.
These universally accepted principles cover the areas of human rights, labour, environmental protection and anti-corruption.
Malusi Gigaba, South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises, has shown the country’s government’s support to the initiative by committing six state owned enterprises to sign to the UNGC during July 2012.
SA’s Eskom was one of the pioneers and first global signatories of the UNGC in 2000.
Joanne Yawitch, Chief Executive of the National Business Initiative (NBI), which is a partner to the UNGC said: “If we look at the current challenges we face as a country, we can clearly see many of them are addressed through the UNGC 10 Principles. The UNGC framework offers coherence in understanding the social, economic and environmental impacts of business.
“The adopting of these principles in our legislation, such as the New Companies Act is further proof of the need to work towards more sustainable outcomes in South Africa.”
