The Importance Of Ethics In Community Development

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Ethics are rules or standards to govern the conduct of a person or members of a profession. Patel (2005:223) concurs when she says that ethics prescribe action based on values and set rules that must be followed to give effect to values. Ethical principles are therefore a set of principles of right conduct (Davidson College 2002:1). Swanepoel (2006:35) indicates that the ethical principles inform the approach of development. According to this author, this is done before the community development projects are established as well as during the life-cycle of the project (Swanepoel 2006:35). The ethical principles therefore guide the common goals until they are reached. The principles include human orientation, participation, empowerment and capacity building, ownership, inclusiveness, collaboration and self-determination (Banks & Orton, 2005:106; Cavaye 2000:5; Gray & Mubangizi, 2009; Green & Nieman, 2003; Ife & Tesoreiro, 2006; Kenny, 2002; Lombard, 1992; Payne, 2005:208; Swanepoel & De Beer, 1998:24-28; Swanepoel, 2006:28-32; Tshabalala & Lombard, 2009)
Ethics is a code of thinking and conduct administered by a combination of personal, moral, legal, and social standards of what is …show more content…

It is therefore an indispensable component of democracy (Tshabalala & Lombard, 2009:397). Local government should therefore be concerned with democratising development (Maserumule, 2008:439). The reason for the continuing dissatisfaction and protests by the communities because of poor service delivery eighteen years into democracy is an indication that the local government in South Africa has not been able to provide effectively for local participation (Mathekga & Buccus, 2006:11). In the South African context, community needs cannot be isolated from structural causes, so participation is incorporated into the social justice perspective (Patel,

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