disastrous billing system, the estate agent who is not prepared to admit accountability for the mismanagement of trust accounts, the MEC who escapes accountability when trapped speeding at 235 kilometres per hour or the mining company who does not accept accountability for the untreated and polluted water flowing from its mine into the surrounding water systems.

These examples are symptomatic of how far both individuals and organisations have come to merely blink away their accountability and to what extent society at large is allowing accountability to be trashed.

Accountability is being replaced by abdication, apology, apathy and the blame game. The city’s billing system is going to get much worse before it will get better (if it ever does) because the billing system is being blamed, the estate agent’s company is not going to recover from the bad publicity because the estate agent industry is being blamed for such malpractices.

The MEC will shirk his other responsibilities when the time comes because apologizing is easy and the mining company will walk away scot-free from the pollution caused because of the apathy of regulatory bodies, the public and law enforcers.

Who, however, bears the cost and suffers the consequences of this lack of accountability? The ratepayers of the city do, so do the clients and employees of the estate agent, the victims of other speedsters following the example of the MEC and the communities in the areas surrounding the mine.

What is accountability?

The term ‘accountability’ can be explained in many different ways using different words or phrases to describe it, however, sifting through the many definitions and descriptions provided, a single core element crystallizes from the process. This single core element is known as ‘personal ownership’ and it is indissolubly linked to actions or