Business must re-evaluate its values and do all it must to enable society to unlock full potential
Professor Bonang Mohale
Values 20 (V20) is a global community of values-driven experts and practitioners dedicated to engaging meaningfully with the G20 by raising awareness of values and fostering a consciousness of their role in shaping a just, inclusive and sustainable society, while developing actionable guidelines to integrate values into development initiatives.
Guided by the broader G20 themes of solidarity, equality, and sustainable development, it launched in 2020 during Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency, V20 is an informal engagement group that develops and shapes value-based, human-centred policy proposals for the G20.
The community’s vision is to deepen the integration of values into public policy, embedding values-oriented approach to global governance, aiming to provide people-centred solutions to global challenges.
It focuses on how we, as global citizens, can collectively and conscientiously apply values to improve the well-being of people and the planet. I am absolutely humbled to be appointed the V20 2025 Sherpa after attending G20 meetings since 2015 and subsequently leading the V20 since 2017 in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, as well as having accompanied the sitting president to the G20 in Toronto, Canada.
The collaborative activity of the V20 during the presidency of SA is organised into at least three task forces to reflect the three themes with deliberate effort to understand the interconnected nature of the topics to offer G20 stakeholders a contextual, nuanced and focused range of actions that can be taken to aid development.
We are ably led by a highly committed and extremely talented team of shepherds – a select group of senior leaders who will provide strategic counsel, thought leadership and advocacy in support of the G20.
Among them are Prof Lumkile Wiseman Nkuhlu, Prof Thuli Madonsela, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Dr Mathews Phosa, Sizwe Nxasana, Moss Mashishi, Ntombifuthi Mtoba, Nolitha Fakude and Prof Kurt April. And there are those who are clearing their diaries, Gloria Serobe and Prof Nick Binedell and Justice Edwin Cameron.
The operating structure consists of Dr Preeya Daya and Tabea Tshesane (neé Kabinde) as co-chairs and a steering committee of Dr Thabisile Mhlongo, Prof Camaren Peter, Ilene Powers, Mico Botha, Gary Powers and Kim Can Lith.
The haunting words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr ring true more so today that, “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationships to humanity.”
Because where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present. Similarly, the values of a country are not to be measured by its constitution but by its budget!
Especially because developed countries are not those where the poor can afford cars but where the rich use public transport. Values are ideals, beliefs and overall conceptions that a group or an individual holds and aligns behaviour, motivation, perceptions and personality.
Generally, people are predisposed to adopt the values they were raised with and tend to believe that those values are “right” because they are the values of their particular culture.
Values are critical in building a cohesive society as one that works towards the well-being of all in society, fights all forms of exclusion and marginalisation, creates a sense of belonging, promotes trust and offers its people the opportunity of upward mobility.
At the heart of social cohesion is the notion that relationships among members and groups in society are sufficiently good and that all feel a sense of belonging. That they perceive the whole society as greater than the parts and when differences develop, they can be dealt with peacefully.
Thus, social cohesion drives long-term prosperity and competitiveness because cohesive societies are politically stable and focus on economic growth. It allows everybody in society to share equitably in its prosperity.
South Africans must integrate values like dignity, ubuntu and equity into their daily lives by regularly practicing random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty!
The most beautiful soul is the one who survives the fire and comes back with water to help those still struggling within it.
These values are crucial for any interaction and for creating a connection with the outside world.
All of us must urge business not only to fully comply with the laws but to be a good corporate citizen, an active participant who exercises good cooperative governance in finding common ground, common purpose and the greater good by, among others, rooting out corruption.
Business no longer really has a choice about publicly declaring the values that are near and dear to us, that we adhere to and about making a vocal stand about these.
It is now expected of business. South Africa believes that business now bears equal responsibility with all our social partners to drive positive social change.
- Professor Mohale is the chancellor of the University of the Free State and a former president of Business Unity South Africa
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