Unashamedly Ethical is a campaign making a challenge both to businesses and individuals to conduct truthful, honest relationships, to promote peace and to support the nation under its governing authorities. It promotes “ethics, values and clean living”.

The campaign unites businesses, civic leaders, communities of faith and schools in a quest to “turn the tide on corruption and poverty” in South Africa, and in the wider African community.

Graham Power, chairman of Transformation Africa, is focused on developing a way of conducting business through “holistic, specialised and focused interventions”.

Unashamedly Ethical challenges people to make a personal commitment to ethical living, and to challenge others to do the same. “We believe that if enough of us stand together, we can make a change to the morality of our country and the world!” Power says.

People from all walks of life are encouraged to join Unashamedly Ethical, from CEOs to elected officials, to parents and teenagers, to religious and community leaders. All those who value morality and ethics in South Africa are welcome to spread the word, and make the Unashamedly Ethical commitment.

There are two phases to Unashamedly Ethical: Phase One or The Challenge involves signing the commitment form, and committing to clean living. This could be on behalf of an organisation or simply in an individual capacity.

The second phase is entitled The Community. In order to facilitate relationships between ethical people, Unashamedly Ethical is nurturing a growing community of signatories. To this end, they have built up the following four services:

1)The ‘online Yellow Pages’ of ethical businesses Unashamedly Ethical registers all businesses (whose leaders have signed both commitment forms) on a central directory for ethical organisations, thereby creating an ‘online Yellow Pages’ of ethical businesses. Anyone can search for ‘ethical’ products and services online using this directory, and we believe that much business will begin to pass hands through this medium.

2) Unashamedly Ethical Community events As part of the Unashamedly Ethical community, you will be invited to workshops, conferences, monthly networking breakfasts, training programmes, etc. All these are designed to help you grow in your commitment to living a clean and ethical life. Check online regularly for event updates, news and blogs.

3) ‘Partner’ organisations Unashamedly Ethical will link you to partners who provide products or services that we believe fundamentally support their signatories to live an ethical life. Those partners provide services like training programmes and resources, anti corruption software, corporate ‘ethics consulting’ services, youth and school resources, etc.

4) Accountability through the Unashamedly Ethical ombudsman Each signatory makes him/herself accountable to their fellow signatories for their behaviour. This accountability works through the person of the Unashamedly Ethical ‘ombudsman’. This independent ombudsman will investigate any complaint against a signatory to ensure that ethical standards are upheld by all signatories. The ombudsman may also be approached by any signatory for help in addressing their past mistakes.

Unashamedly Ethical’s goal is to have 10% of South Africa’s population signed on as participating signatories in the next five years, making a significant difference to the ethics our country operates by. This will be measurable in terms of decreased crime, corruption, poverty, unemployment and family breakdowns.

So what’s the next step? Your first step is to sign the Commitment form and fax it to Unashamedly Ethical on +27 (0) 86 673 9720. Before you do so, however, you are encouraged to attend an Unashamedly Ethical seminar (as an individual) or host one for your company. This can be done by calling Unashamedly Ethical in Cape Town on 021 856 4140 or mailing them.