CSR governance framework of South Africa, pre, during and post-apartheid: a manifestation of ubuntu values?

The paper examines whether and how ubuntu values were infused into the corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance framework of South Africa. It uses the CSR governance framework as an exemplar of how corporations, individuals and communities can exude ubuntu values in their daily operations. We adopted an historical cultural context approach to decipher how ubuntu principles were linked with social responsibility, pre, during and post-apartheid. We also identified dominant actors in the CSR arena and the discourses that sustained them. Our analyses revealed that ubuntu values converged with ethical values of other anti-apartheid actors during the crafting of the new CSR governance framework. We also note that the outcome of the interactions was an infusion of ubuntu values into pieces of legislation, ethics committees and industry charters. Our conclusion is that ubuntu principles are indeed manifested in South Africa's CSR governance framework whose goal is to create a caring society.