Speaking at a business breakfast held to discuss the value of the UNGC for South African corporations on Friday, Gigaba said the African continent had fallen prey to "perception gaps".
"It is important for Africa to warm up to the Compact because we, more than anybody else, have enormous challenges ahead of us," he said, noting that there were misperceptions about the country's ability to attract investment.
The Compact initiative was launched in 2000 and is an international drive to bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to advance universal social and environmental principles. It is the largest voluntary initiative of its kind in the world.
The minister pointed out that while the African continent had been outperforming many regions in the world, Afro-pessimism remained.
"There are perceptions of who we are and how we do things," said Gigaba.
He added that the country's economy has been an energy intensive one and the dependency on fossil fuel and South Africa's selling of electricity cheaply has had an influence on the country's inability to diversify the economy.
"These challenges are not unique to South Africa, but it is important for us as a country in Africa to raise the profile of compliance with the principles of the Compact - not only for ourselves but for the continent because as a developing nation.... we must confront the tendency of self-interest in developed countries," explained the minister.
The compact runs on 10 principles ranging from human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
"The actions of each individual in the country are critical, because when added up, if everyone took responsibility at individual level, we'd be able to add to a global response."
South Africa could not operate in a vacuum and it was important to put issues of the environment on the agenda. For South Africa to obtain a green economy, innovative methods needed to be implemented. Sustainable development was not negotiable.
"It's important that issues of the environment and sustainability are put firmly on our national agenda," he said.
It was also necessary for leadership to be demonstrated as well as the necessary steps taken to mobilise the community and companies to support the initiative.
"We aspire to be a developmental state, we want to address poverty and inequality," said Gigaba.
Eskom Chief Executive Officer Brian Dames said companies took it for granted that they must be good corporate citizens. "It is not about profit in the short term," he said.
It was easy to sign the Compact but it required time investment, among other things.
"It has direct spin-offs in the way it addresses risk while it also provides a global yardstick for ourselves and our suppliers," said Dames.
Futhi Mtoba, chairman of the UN Global Compact SA, said the benefit for businesses in signing up for the compact was that it offered tools and guidelines in risk assessment.
Corruption, she said, was one of the greatest risks faced by business, with figures showing that $27 trillion of the fiscus has been lost through corruption.
Last week, eight state-owned enterprises - namely Denel, Transnet, Eskom, SAA, Broadband Infraco, Safcol and SA Express - that fall under the portfolio of the Department of Public Eenterprises signed a commitment to the UNGC.
Companies like Siemens and Sanlam form part of the companies that had already signed the UNGC.
