Abstract
South Africa is a country that is still in the transitioning process of providing an equal, equitable and just society for its previously disadvantaged people. The country faces several socio-economic developmental challenges, ranging from inadequate housing, high crime rates, violence against women and children, ineffectual health facilities, a slowing economy and high youth unemployment, which invariably affect the business community. If South Africa is to achieve sustainable economic transformation, the business community along with other stakeholders must participate in ensuring social justice and socio-economic development for its previously disadvantaged people. This article contributed to the discourse on the assertion that social justice and socio-economic development are central for sustainable development in any society. The article called for the assistance and participation of other stakeholders, particularly the business community, to help build a just, healthy and robust environment, which translates into a strong community and portends a sustainable environment for businesses. Contribution: This article assessed the effectiveness of legislating social justice and corporate social responsibility. The article adopted the European Union’s Better Regulation evaluation methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the country’s social justice and corporate social responsibility legislation and the influence of the legislations on the socio-economic developmental challenges affecting the country.
Highlights
South Africa is a country that is faced with unique and distinctive socio-economic challenges that are generally attributed to the legacy of the apartheid regime (Govender 2016; Reddy 2016)
The second segment explores the challenges arising from the actualisation of social justice through corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation amongst South African companies, whilst the third segment of the article discusses the research methods, findings, recommendations and conclusions arising from a study conducted by Anwana (2018) adopting the European Union (EU)’s Better Regulation evaluation methods to evaluate the effectiveness of social justice and CSR legislation in South Africa and their influence on socioeconomic development
The results indicated that legal compliance was the most challenging aspect of CSR implementation for most South African listed companies
Summary
South Africa is a country that is faced with unique and distinctive socio-economic challenges that are generally attributed to the legacy of the apartheid regime (Govender 2016; Reddy 2016). Reconcile South Africans failed to offer compensation to the victims of apartheid nor did it compensate black South African’s for the gross violations of human rights and land dispossession’s that occurred (Helliker, Hendricks & Ntsebeza 2013) Based on this history, race, land and economic exclusion play a major role in social justice, socio-economic development and sustainable development discourse in South Africa (Davis 2020; Tshishonga 2019). The article adopts the European Union’s (EU) Better Regulation evaluation methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the country’s social justice and CSR legislation and the influence of these legislations on the socio-economic developmental challenges affecting the country. The second segment explores the challenges arising from the actualisation of social justice through CSR implementation amongst South African companies, whilst the third segment of the article discusses the research methods, findings, recommendations and conclusions arising from a study conducted by Anwana (2018) adopting the EU’s Better Regulation evaluation methods to evaluate the effectiveness of social justice and CSR legislation in South Africa and their influence on socioeconomic development
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