It is tragic that our values are being undermined by leaders

MCEBISI Jonas’s acknowledgement that he had been offered the finance minister’s job by the Guptas is the lancing of a festering boil.

I am angered by the revelation and will await the outcome with vested interest.

As a high school principal, my staff and I teach. It is our core business, but not our core purpose. Our purpose is to educate and inspire our youth to discover their potential, so that they may serve society. We do that underpinned by core values that we strive to maintain. They are respect, responsibility, service and truth.

We do so in our microcosm of society, a thousand pupils at a time. It is tragic that the values we aspire towards are being undermined by the leaders who we should hold up as being aspirational. Little wonder that Jonathan Jansen recently wrote of the disillusionment, fears and apprehensions of many school pupils.

Respect your elders cry hollow when many of our “elders” command no respect.

Why are values referred to as being old-fashioned? Are they no longer relevant, or just absent? We have a national crisis of integrity. The spinning of truth is at an all-time high. Too many of those entrusted with the democratic mandate to address inequality are enriching themselves.

I can only trust that those politicians who continue to work so tirelessly for the better society we all want will be emboldened by Jonas’s stance and draw their own line in the sand.