POLITRICKING | 'A beckoning of destiny': True leadership is a calling, says Reuel Khoza
Entrepreneur and academic, Dr Reuel Khoza, shares his thoughts on what leadership is and why South Africa needs a dialogue to come to grips with its many challenges.
FILE: Entrepreneur, academic and thought leader, Dr Reuel Khoza. Picture: https://www.reuelkhoza.co.za/
There are increasing calls for South Africans to turn to dialogue in order to chart a path forward for a country grappling with multiple challenges, which potentially threaten a vision of a prosperous future.
Dr Reuel Khoza, an entrepreneur, academic and thought leader, is one of those making such calls. He says all South Africans have the responsibility of shifting the country away from its current downward trajectory.
"There are things that bug us and if we voiced it, instead of outsourcing it to a small political elite, [it] might actually be addressed a lot more adequately," he says.
Khoza features this week on EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia. During the conversation, he reflects on the need for the country to enter into a dialogue, to hold "conversations" with itself, for collective participation in its democracy and the values of conscientious leadership.
This is on the back of his latest literary offering, a three-volume handbook, edited alongside the renowned Professor Muxe Nkondo, who passed away in August.
The pair, who share an extensive history that dates back to Mankweng in Limpopo, long before the advent of democracy or even the University of Turfloop shed its name to become what is today known as the University of Limpopo. This era, according to Khoza, is where he found himself playing the role of Nkondo’s tail, who benefitted from both his brilliance and activism and while the relationship also led to them being fired, it birthed multiple conversations, which now feature several thought leaders and is a legacy project that remains, even after Nkondo’s passing.
During the conversation, he also weighed in on the recent deaths of children who died after eating snacks purchased from a local spaza shop. Government has since announced terbofus, a toxic chemical compound, as the cause of death. For Khoza, the slow approach by government is bothersome and he says if authorities acted faster, perhaps some of the children’s lives would have been spared.
"As things stand here, you have leadership that’s very lackadaisical. For them it is a job, almost managerial, when in fact they should have the necessary sensitivity that characterises leadership," he noted.
He says true leadership has to be seen as a calling, a "beckoning of destiny", in the growing and grooming of a society. These are views similar to the recurring themes in his book where he too pens a section on ethical leadership and governance.
The South African Handbook of Agency, Freedom and Justice: Citizens in Conversation (volumes 1,2 and 3) features over 100 thought leaders, including the likes of former and current statistician-generals, several advocates and professionals, who share their reflections on the state of different aspects of South African life. Khoza says he hopes it becomes a guiding light on the need for conversations and a push to bring principles such as Ubuntu at the core of how the country approaches issues around leadership.
"Perhaps where political leadership had blind spots we would be able to help them reduce that. Where they listen selectively, we might be able to prevail on them to listen with much greater sensitivity," says Khoza.
He explains that perceptions that the 1994 democratic breakthrough meant South Africa’s problems would become smaller have been proven wrong, pointing out that the country becoming a democracy meant more work to build nationhood had to be done.
"A democracy engages, does things collectively. In a democracy, there is ample representation but things haven’t turned out that way," he remarks.
His calls for a dialogue join many others, including from foundations linked to former presidents, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. At the same time, the current ANC-led coalition government, known as the Government of National Unity, has called for a national dialogue, which is set to take place on the 16th of December.
Khoza, in sharing his views on the many challenges facing the country, including high crime, corruption and gender based violence, emphasises that leadership that needs to emerge cannot afford to be reactionary but has to have a certain level of awareness while serving the nation. He’s critiqued some ministers for "lording" over citizens instead of being in service to their needs.