‘Leadership’ is the undoubted word of the moment. During the first five months of 2012, reams have been written about the what many perceive to be at the heart of many of the world’s current problems: a desperate lack of leadership.

In Europe, the lamentations have taken on democratic momentum, with nine governments having been voted out of power since 2009. In the US, the excruciating Republican Primary process to select a candidate to take on President Barack Obama, in November, possibly did more to undermine the leadership credentials of the main contenders than it did to enhance them. No doubt, the real thing will be as robust and potentially as damaging.

In South Africa, civil society has become far more vocal in expressing its unhappiness about the quality of leadership on offer. The backlash has not merely been confined to the unceasing series of service delivery protests, but can be witness, too, in the objections to e-tolls in Gauteng, the opposition to the so-called ‘Secrecy Bill’, as well as in moves by civil society to unseat a top policeman, who was controversially reinstated to an influential position despite serious questions.

It could be argued that the African National Congress’s disproportionate display of aggression towards ‘The Spear’ was a calculated, albeit clumsy, political attempt to dispel suggestions of disharmony in its ranks over the question of leadership.

However, two other important words are now starting to command almost equal attention. They are: ‘social cohesion’.

Like leadership, social cohesion is in short supply – a reality that was again on graphic display during the fallout over the Goodman Gallery’s display of Brett Murray’s works of political satire.

Now, South Africa has a recent heritage of making progress on the back of social cohesion. To be sure, this country could not have made the sacrifices and the changes it did in the run-up to 1994, as well as the progress it has made subsequently, had it not been for that vital ingredient.

The problem is that there is little or no chance of social cohesion in the absence of leadership. That is the real lesson of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy.