Among some of the many traits of good leadership are virtues of decisiveness, courage and a developed sense of foresight.
These indispensable attributes have stood many great world leaders in good stead throughout human history, and have served as a torchlight to them to wade through difficult human pitfalls, and enabled them to avoid dangerous pathways.
Throughout human history, distinguished leaders have been marked by these qualities, which separate boys from men.
If we can imagine a timid and indecisive captain – and his or her vessel on sea confronted by swells that threaten to torpedo the ship, how should they respond to the impending danger of unrelenting and raging and roaring high seas?
Such a leader would be a threat to the wellbeing of passengers. Even as they realise there is a life-threatening difficulty, yet they fear to bite the bullet, and to take bold decisions. To resort to a conference meeting in a moment of crisis could have disastrous outcomes.
President Cyril Ramaphosa may be such a leader, who dithers and seeks consensus, even when there is no need for it.
But he is the president, duly elected by the electorate, and should act more in the best interests of the electorate than his party.
In a crisis, when the country burns, he needs to act quickly and appropriately.
Today, the country is in a state of dysfunction. His party, the ANC, is in a state of paralysis, unable to provide leadership. The ship is threatened by political icebergs.
But if we go back to the early Mandela years at the onset of our democracy post-1994, there is no question the nation was buoyed and brimming with confidence even as former president Nelson Mandela may not have been in every sense of the word a perfect and saintly leader, but the country understood they had a president who was decisive.
When, during those early days of our democracy, there was a little crisis in the ANC, and the culprit was the leading member of the organisation, Gen Bantu Holomisa, now the leader of United Democratic Movement, Mandela did not hesitate to act swiftly and decisive. He fired him on the spot.
This was despite Holomisa’s unquestionable popularity in the ANC. He was at the time a number one on the ANC list. But that did not make Holomisa an untouchable. Mandela gave him the boot.
On the question of the Springbok, and its emblem, and the fact that it was a direct product of apartheid’s creation, Mandela, by argument, logic and persuasion, overruled his national executive committee whose intention it was to do away with name and the emblem.
Today the Springbok rugby team is embraced by all South Africans.
But Ramaphosa sees himself as a process man. Take the Ace Magashule matter. Ramaphosa, as ANC president, chose to move at a snail’s pace. He dithers. Magashule was clearly a problem child, yet Ramaphosa lacked the courage to act decisively. Now Magashule continues to pose a threat to the existence of the ANC.
And this goes for Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. She has openly defied Ramaphosa, yet she is still in his cabinet.
Ramaphosa has chosen to keep the enemy camp in his fold. Mandela did not. His authority was never in question.
The same cannot be said of Ramaphosa. The country is in all kind of crises – the electricity crisis, crime rate, unemployment rate and the poverty levels that are shooting through the roof.
What must Ramaphosa do? He must act against non-performing members in his cabinet.
The police, among others, is an example of a portfolio that needs to be considered for revision or pruning.
Ramaphosa would never be a Mandela. But he was a Mandela disciple. Yet he seems not to be walking in the footsteps of the master.
Why is the ANC abandoning Mandela’s teachings of selflessness? Could this be because of greed, and the desire for riches? The desire for self-enrichment – and to capture the state, as the Zondo commission has shown?
Ramaphosa has made his bed. Now he must lie on it as the great party of Madiba implodes.
- Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, ex-trade unionist and former publications editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
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