WATCH: UJ lecturer questions Mashatile on ethical leadership (VIDEO)

Deputy President Paul Mashatile said South Africa and the continent were experiencing problems because of “unethical” leaders.

Mashatile addressed students and academics

Mashatile was responding to a question by an Ethics lecturer at the Univerity of Johannesburg where he was giving a public lecture on Tuesday.

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He had this message for Ethics students: “My message to your students is they must take to heart what they learn. Ethics is a very important strength of leadership so your students would probably be one of those good leaders that we are going to have. We cannot achieve much without ethical leadership. The reason that we have had problems in the society in the continent, in the main, has been a lack of ethical leadership.”

Watch the interaction in the video below

Mashatile described a course in ethics as a great initiative and said he wanted to see more students getting an opportunity to learn the course.

“It must cut across all subjects that we are providing [and] ethical leadership must be part of it,” he said.

Poor ethical record

Ironically, Mashatile has been the subject of several corruption investigations including parliamentary probes by the Ethics Committee on corruption allegations dating back to his time as the leader of the ANC in Gauteng.

He is also under investigation for accusations of nepotism and misleading parliament there were also questions on at least two multi-million rand properties that he utilised in Johannesburg and in Cape Town.

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Mashatile said when he was appointed DP he had the intention of focusing on implementation.

“We have got too many policies. I think we are moving too slow to implement,” he said.

Mashatile was also questioned about his views on the the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) and the upcoming elections.

He expressed full confidence in the IEC to deliver free and fair elections.

“I am confident that the IEC is ready. The president had an opportunity to meet with them and they said we are ready. The minister of finance has given them resources,” he said.

Despite this, he indicated this round of elections would be different because there were many new political parties and three ballot papers, which included independent candidates.

“I believe that many will agree that this election will be the most important and probably the most exciting. There are so many parties that have registered to stand for elections and, of course, independents,” Mashatile said.