Surely Zuma knows it is time to go?

It is his call to make, but the signs are there for all to read

THE events of the past few days have reminded us all about the importance of present and visible leadership and the effects of the lack thereof.

But then again, perhaps our current challenge has less to do with present or visible leadership. It’s probably an issue of ethical leadership.

By “ethical” I don’t necessarily refer to the narrow definition of the term. I’m not talking about morality or even honesty. That would be too much to ask of our current leaders. I am talking about the simple decision to do the right thing when all signs point in that direction — the right thing in this context being to vacate office.

Last month, the prime minister of Armenia, Ovik Abramyan, resigned to give way to a coalition government. According to reports, he promised to create a government of “national accord” following a twoweek standoff at a police compound that left two police officers dead and shook the nation.

Apparently, several dozen armed men captured the police compound in the capital, Yerevan, in July, demanding freedom for an opposition activist and the government’s ouster. The standoff triggered rallies in support of the gunmen and clashes with police in what appeared to be the biggest political crisis in the country in years.

Yes, one can argue that we are not Armenia and our situation is not as dire. I often wonder if that is a true assessment of things or a false sense of comfort not supported by facts.

The facts are that we have a president who is under siege from various quarters of society.

We have an economy that hangs on every thread of good news to try to recover from a 32-year low in business confidence.

We have a number of universities that are essentially dysfunctional for a very good reason.

We are likely to be rated subinvestment grade by the ratings agencies, which could slow down our progress in closing the infrastructure deficit.

More than a third of our employable population is sitting at home by no choice of their own, and this is likely to worsen.

We continue to have the highest Gini coefficient in the world, with 9% of the population controlling the majority of its economy.

We have a president in a cold war with his finance minister.

We have a business community in a cold war with its president.

So how different are we from any other country in the world where the political head should read the signs that it may be time for him to go?

There is no shortage of people calling for President Jacob Zuma to vacate his position, but while I, too, have had enough of the absent leadership, I don’t believe that calling for a president to leave office is the way. That is a decision a sitting president makes himself.

The only political decision we get to make is at the polls. We commit to years of leadership by those we vote for. It is rather convenient to now, midway through a president’s term, demand his resignation, notwithstanding how we may feel about his leadership or lack thereof.

In a way, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the leader you have chosen cannot or does not see signs that it is time to go, it speaks volumes about the choice you have made.

Election-rigging aside, in a constitutional democracy one tends to get the leader one deserves.

Ray Hartley recently asked former finance minister Trevor Manuel what he would say if he had a few minutes of face-time with Zuma.

“I would say to him that the only thing we have — the only thing we have — that binds us together is our constitution. Because it sets out what we must become. The preamble commits us to -— among other things — raise the living standards of each citizen and to free the potential of each person. That’s big!

“You can’t do that unless you are concentrated on what the needs of people are and whether you are actually discharging that obligation to raise the living standards of people.

“You can’t free the potential if you have an education system that is actually set up to fail the children of the poor. You can’t do that.

“Leave aside the politics of everything else. If you fail at that, you fail the constitution.” Hello, Armenia. Khumalo is chief investment officer of MSG Afrika Group and presents “Power Business” on Power 98.7 at 5pm, Monday to Thursday

We have a business community in a cold war with its president