Elishah Mutigwe

An Ubuntu / Hunhu Appraisal of the Ethics of Whistle Blowing: Zimbabwean Perspective Elishah Mutigwe

The study appraises the highly contested concept of whistle blowing in the field of business ethics through the philosophy of ubuntu/hunhu. In order to unpack some of the controversies around whistle blowing, the following questions are raised: What is whistle blowing? Is it different from back-biting or mere reporting or wrong-doing? What are the positive and negative implications of whistle blowing? Is it an alien concept among the Shona? In the process of grappling with these questions, the dissertation unravels the nature of whistle blowing and ubuntu/hunhu . All this is done through desk interrogation of both Occidental and African ethicists like T. De George, R. A. Larmer, Gene G. James, R. A. Buchholz and S. A. Rosenthal, N. Mkhize, Gade and F. Mangena, just to mention a few. Developing from the Shona concept of kurova bembera, this work shows that whistle blowing is not an alien concept among the Shona. In fact, the study brings to the fore benefits of whistle blowing in safeguarding African collectivism, dynamism in ubuntu/hunhu acculturation as it appraises the hybridised practise of whistle blowing.