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Business ethics
Ethical leadership and business
conduct
Good corporate governance is essentially about
effective and responsible leadership. This is
characterised by the ethical values of
responsibility, accountability, fairness and
transparency. The typical aspects of corporate
governance, such as the role and
responsibilities of the board and directors
individually, internal audit, risk management
and stakeholder engagement rest on a
foundation of ethical values.
To this extent, Blue Label’s ethical standards
are encapsulated in its ethics statement, which
provides a template for ethical reasoning as a
guide to all employees in their dealings with
both internal and external stakeholders. The
ethics statement is applicable to employees
across the Group, as well as to customers,
business partners, suppliers and other
stakeholders. Each is requested to uphold the
ethical reasoning of the statement, thereby
enabling us to live our values.
The purpose of the ethics statement is to:
• |
emphasise the Group’s commitment to
ethics and compliance with laws and
regulations, |
• |
set out basic standards of ethical and legal
behaviour, |
• |
provide reporting mechanisms for known or
suspected ethical or legal violations, and |
• |
help prevent and detect wrongdoing. |
From an ethical perspective Blue Label
reiterates its stance on the following matters:
• |
fraudulent, corrupt or illegal practices are
not tolerated. Bribes or any other illicit
payments including facilitations will neither
be paid nor received; |
• |
the Group does not participate in any illegal
anti-competitive activity. Employees cannot
authorise or participate in any illegal conduct
or action that purports to restrict
competition; and |
• |
the Group is non-political. It does not allow
its assets and services to be used in any
way which favours any particular political
grouping. |
Employees are expected to demonstrate ethical
business practices. All new staff members
undergo an induction programme that includes
training on the above “code of business
conduct”, including the function of the ethics
hotline, such as what should be reported and
how to report unethical behaviour via this
channel. The ethics hotline is outsourced to
KPMG Ethics Line, a division of KPMG, and
has been certified by EthicsSA as fulfilling the
External Whistle-blowing Hotline Service
Provider Standard EO1.1.1. This standard is a
best practice set of guidelines or norms for the
professional and ethical conduct of external
whistle-blowing hotline service providers
operating their own centres or facilities.
All incidents reported during the year under
review were human resource-related matters
and were resolved by the Group Human
Resources Manager.

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