A lesson in humility

THERE have been tributes aplenty to Public Service and Administration minister Collins Chabane, killed at the age of 54 in a highway collision. They were his due, the fibre of his character emerging strongly in the fond words. It was the shock of his sudden end in a 1am crash, and a general respect for the man, that clearly drew people together in their mourning.

As Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa put it at a memorial service in Pretoria on Thursday, “it is rare to find such a universal sense of personal loss”. A noticeable feature of Ramaphosa’s eulogy was his humility. He did not have to have the most expensive car, or choose hotels with air conditioning.

Ramaphosa also told of a man who stood with the common folk in the queue for the toilet rather than going to the VIP facility. He had also insisted on being a regular parishioner at his church, not a dignitary.

Chabane spoke to everyone and listened to everyone, he said. He had been down-to-earth, unassuming, and never removed from the daily struggles of the poor.

“It is difficult to remain ‘a man of the people’ when you are wearing the robes of power, but Collins Chabane showed us how to do it,” he said.

BY RAMAPHOSA’S telling, and that of many others, Chabane truly had a unique leadership style. This widespread admiration contains a bold message for all, both in the government and private sectors: modesty is laudable.

Let this be a lesson to government executives who are ignoring appeals from their own to curtail spending on trappings of power and their own comforts.

Now we read of demands for perks by the National House of Traditional Leaders, including SUVs that do not leave much change from R1 million. Why? Why not SUVs at half the price that would probably do better?

Do the people want to see modest public representatives? Yes, yes and yes again. Chabane told us so.