WIDEN TALK ON ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

DURBAN was a clever venue to launch the ANC manifesto. I watched with great interest your address live from the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Mr President. You said all the right things to a capacity crowd and you articulated what the citizenry wanted to hear.

However, we, the people, had heard it all before from various leaders. The words are always a contest between sincere intention, unmoving decisions and paralytic promises. Against the backdrop of a fragmented society that has lurched from crisis to crisis, the ethical destitution of a nation has taken its toll.

The leadership excesses of extravagant, wasteful and selfindulgent lifestyles have further plunged us into a moral and ethical cauldron. This can only mean that something has to be done urgently while there are starving children and the desperate jobless among us.

There is something that you said, though, that was significant and created an iota of optimism.

You called on people to “build a capable and ethical state” and added “we must intensify the fight against corruption within government and society”. I pray that your words penetrate the indolent stupor of some of our greedy leaders who have been allowed to repeatedly erode our national psyche.

I understand the challenging road ahead for you and the enormous responsibility you have to bear but it is critical, more now than ever before, that you deepen the conversations and dialogue around conscious, ethical leadership before we choose the new leadership of the country.

If we are to survive and grow, it is imperative for our leadership to address equitable and sustainable development, poverty, historical imbalances, values, ethics, inequality and decency. You are deeply aware of this; the question is how?

We have a great opportunity from the current morass we find ourselves in to breed a different quality of leadership. When leaders are found wanting, they have an opportunity to turn this hurdle into a life lesson of conscious leadership.

Conscious leadership demands the surrender of greed, self-interest and ego for integrity, service and selfless action.

This is a mammoth undertaking, Mr President. A perceived shift in the leadership that governs us will most certainly garner my vote, and I’m sure the beloved country will be undeniably behind you.

Brenda Kali is the chief executive of Conscious Companies and the Founder of the Conscious Leadership Academy. www.consciouscompanies.co.za