MIYELANI HOLENI: Municipalities can foster leadership stability - if they build stronger leadership pipelines

I have in my 25-year professional career enjoyed the privilege of working for a few organisations in different sectors, ranging from ICT, manufacturing, financial services, and in the public sector. It is the financial services sector, specifically banking - that has helped me experience and grasp the importance of managing human capital to achieve superior results.

Having worked for one of the South African banking groups, my eyes were peeled to the best practice that they have shaped such that they are well recognised around the world.

People are an integral part of the bank’s core resources (apart from money) that is central to the provision of their service to the public. They have recognised it is people who implement their strategic intent by way of interacting with customers, programming their ATMs, and delivering services.

I have learned that banks have enrolled fully into creating a compelling, exciting and progressive employee value proposition underpinned by excellent leadership across the length and breadth of their organisation.

South African banks such as Standard Bank, Nedbank, FNB, ABSA, and Investec (to name a few) have consistently demonstrated the value and benefits they derive from practicing internal succession planning.

Nedbank's former CEO, Mike Brown, exemplifies this approach, having risen through the ranks to lead the institution from Chief Financial Officer for six years, to eventually taking over the Chief Executive (CE) seat from Tom Boardman, who had served for seven years.

Brown was an internally sourced candidate when he was appointed as CE, a position he held for 13 years. In 2024, Nedbank broke the tradition of grooming CEOs internally, appointing Jason Quinn from ABSA, where he served as Group Financial Director and later Interim CE. Quinn in many ways is an internal product of ABSA, having started in 2008 as Group Financial Controller, and rose through the ranks to almost becoming the CE of ABSA.

Standard Bank was engaged in a similar talent farming enterprise where Jacko Maree emerged as the big boss of the Standard Bank Group. Maree joined Standard Bank in 1980 and became CEO in 1999, after taking over from Derek Cooper who was himself grown internally at Standard Bank, having served in various positions during his 30-year career.

Maree served as CE of Standard Bank for 14 years until he handed the CE position to Sim Tshabalala and Ben Kruger. It was Tshabalala who emerged as the new CE in 2013 (he was the first black Group CEO of the Standard Bank Group). Tshabalala himself joined Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank.
Tshabalala became CEO of Standard Bank in 2013 after joining Standard Bank in 2000, which no doubt makes him part of the furniture.

Similar chronicles can be told of other banks in South Africa, despite the challenging economic and trading conditions.

The one important common denominator among them is that they farm, grow and deploy their internal talent to strategic positions. The outcome of what I call the triple act is that the transition from one leader to the other is seamless and instant.

The new CE can get on with the job sooner because of familiarity, readiness and tenure within the same institution.

Succession planning is a crucial element for sustaining leadership, strategic direction and for long-term success. I cannot help but imagine how government – with all its struggles with leadership consistency often disrupted by political changes rather than strategic needs - can adopt similar strategies to ensure continuity, professionalism, and an enhanced public service.

As the private sector exemplifies effective leadership transitions by successfully grooming leaders from within, could local government take a leaf from this and grow an internal cohort of supervisors, managers, heads of departments and municipal managers?

While internal succession offers numerous benefits, such as alignment with organisational culture and strategic goals, it is not without challenges.

Long-serving leaders may develop a sense of entitlement or complacency, which can undermine the benefits of internal promotion. Addressing these issues requires implementing checks and balances to ensure that leadership remains dynamic and accountable.

Many a time, the “P word” has been uttered by anyone who can pronounce it, with scant information on how to attain what it represents.

The word professionalisation has become cheap, mentioned in different platforms to delight the audience and to posture a message of wanting to create a much-needed change. However, the P word has not been invoked.

There is no doubt in my mind that professionalising the running of municipalities would be a game-changer and may herald a new era of achieving long-term success and stability. Municipalities must offer a compelling career proposition to attract and retain talented professionals. A strong employee value proposition (EVP) should emphasise career development opportunities, competitive compensation, and a supportive work environment.

Moreover, embedding succession planning into the organisational culture is essential.

Municipalities should ensure that each department has a clear leadership pipeline, promoting merit-based advancement, and recognising outstanding performance. This approach not only motivates employees, but also prepares them to assume leadership roles effectively. There can be no meaningful professionalisation in local government without a clear and sustainable succession plan, based on an internal pool of capable men and women.

The Auditor-General of South Africa's (AGSA) office provides a successful model for embedding a culture of professionalism, stability and seamless succession in the public sector. The consistent promotion of Deputy Auditor General demonstrates that a well-established succession plan can lead to effective leadership transitions and organisational stability.

Municipalities, unlike the private sector, often face leadership instability due to political shifts and frequent changes in administration. To overcome these challenges, local governments can draw valuable insights from the banking sector and the Auditor-General’s succession planning practices.

If municipalities are to adopt a professional demeanor and culture, they must implement five actionable non-negotiable items.

As a foundation for creating a pool of talent, municipalities must establish internship and graduate programmes to kickstart the process of attracting new bright minds into their ranks. Banks run illustrious internship and graduate development programmes to cultivate future leaders. These programmes not only provide early career opportunities, but also build a bedrock of institutional knowledge that benefits the municipality in the long run.

After recruiting new graduates, municipalities must implement on-the-job training and mentorship to provide practical experience combined with learning from experienced managers and leaders.

Municipalities should establish mentorship networks where experienced leaders guide emerging talent through real-world challenges, enhancing their readiness to assume managerial and leadership roles.

This must also apply to current supervisors and managers alike such that the staff entering from the bottom find middle managers who are set in a conducive and desirable culture based on core values.

Building capable leaders means employees must be encouraged to pursue further education and professional certifications. Municipalities need to create a platform to support further education and certification.

This is an area where the AGSA has achieved mastery through the taking in of raw and impressionable graduates, and carefully exposing them to new skills before throwing them into various public state organs to hone their skills. This is coupled with a learning programme that steers the clerks to study and write board exams to become Chartered Accountants.

Municipalities should also create their own unique formal process to support staff to advance their education and obtain relevant qualifications, fostering a culture of lifelong learning and enhancing the overall skill set of future leaders.

Exposure to diverse work environments is crucial for learning, application and enhancement of technical and managerial skills. Leaders who possess an engrained and empirical view of the world tend to be more successful as they have a library of tools to deploy in solving complex problems. It has been proven that leaders who have greater exposure can function under volatile, uncertain, complex and uncertain (VUCA) environments.

Exposure of municipal staff to different environments requires a well-orchestrated programme of international exchange and skills immersion of carefully selected talented individuals.

Finally, the efforts of developing graduates into functional staff members, who can swell the supervisory ranks and eventually assume senior management and leadership roles, requires them to be shielded from undue and adverse actions from their superiors.

These staff members must be insulated from any form of whimsical political influences. Political influence can undermine the effectiveness of leadership succession in the public sector.

Municipalities must develop structures to minimise political interference in leadership appointments. By establishing merit-based criteria for promotions and transparent recruitment processes, municipalities can ensure leadership transitions are based on qualifications and performance, rather than political favoritism.

Embracing these practices will not only improve the quality of local governance, but also contribute to a more resilient and capable public sector, ultimately benefiting the communities they serve.