PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS ON LEADERSHIP AND DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA

A more than candid public conversation on leadership in South Africa as we enter the second decade of liberation can only be realistic if it is contextualized. Therefore, what is the context?
Firstly, South Africa is not only experiencing the nascent stages of its second decade of national emancipation but finds itself within an increasingly competitive environment in a rapidly globalizing international economic arena, accompanied by a variety of challenging political circumstances. Secondly, at the turn of this century, leaders of the world, all hopefully representing this various peoples, converged at the United Nations Summit to map out the fundamental tasks confronting mankind around global development issues.
The Millennium Development goals, aimed at confronting the question of extreme poverty in our world where close to two billion people are forced to exist on fewer than two Dollars per day, were the collective goals chartered by the Millennium summit. These goals, to be reviewed in 2015 and finally in 2025, include amongst others, the following:
1. The eradication of extreme poverty.

2. The achievement of universal primary education.

3. The reduction of child mortality.

4. To improve maternal health.

5. The promotion of gender equality.

6. The combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

7. To ensure environmental sustainability.

8. The development of global partnerships for development.

Our country is co-sponsor and signatory to the UN declaration on these noble Millennium goals because not only do we crave to live in a better world, but most importantly, we desire to have a better quality of life for our own citizens. The Electoral manifesto of the ANC, our governing party, was and remains "A better life for all".
A better quality of life, a much better life presupposes sustained economic growth - or better still, sustainable high economic growth rates. In our situation, this implies an economic GDP growth rate beyond the current 4 to 5% to compete with the population growth figures. Notwithstanding that the South African year 2006 - 2007 growth rates are in positive territory, it should be recalled that the envisaged target was 6% for the year 2001. Therefore, there is a deficit in our targets, a situation that will require continuous improvements.
Economic growth rates are by themselves meaningless unless they touch the lives of ordinary citizens. Our greatest challenge is therefore that of wealth creation for all. The concept of shared growth after all needs to be understood not in the context of what Karl Marx referred to as "egalitarianism", but in a situation where, through the creation of equal opportunities, citizens shall prosper to varying degrees of success.
In a nutshell, the task is that of growing a strong and sustainable economy and to undertake wealth creation opportunities for all. The poorest of the poor do not wish to remain entrapped in their marginal position for a moment longer; they also need to enjoy material wealth. Therefore, being pro-poor is not about sloganeering or poverty entrenchment but about engaging in strategies for wealth creation and enhancement.
While the process of economic growth in our situation is premised upon the uneasy partnership between labour and capital in the production processes, it is nevertheless the function of the State to create the enabling environment for growth.

An additional role of government together with its partners in the economy - workers and capital - is to put in place a social plan to support those who are on the fringes of the economy, far away from its centre-stage, and to have a safety net to catch those - the poorest of the poor - who fall through the cracks. This is aimed at providing them with housing opportunities, a public health system, education and skills development, as well as providing electricity, water and other crucial basic social services.
But it is the corporate sector that is the primary creator of jobs and work opportunities. The extent to which this sector is treated or maltreated, welcomed or unwelcomed, by far determines their continued appetite and commitment to capital expansion and job creation.
It should also be emphatically stated that at the same time, it is the workers who are the primary creators of value, for without them, natural resources, tools and machines cannot by themselves create commodities. It therefore stands to reason, that the capital-labour partnership is uneasy for the reason that it is the quintessential example of the unity and struggle of the opposites - where both are united in the production process and contradictory in respect of the distribution of surplus value. Where labour's objective is to maximize wages, capital aims at the maximization of profit. Growth of our economy therefore lies in the ability of all parties to manage these production tensions while government develops and maintains the requisite climate.
Our country is not an island. It is part and parcel of the globalized world markets, which are highly punitive upon those who place much emphasis on internal feuds where contradictions are left to degenerate into antagonisms. Foreign competitors simply love such nations. The notions ought to change. We need to bear this in mind as we continue to engage with each other.
PROGRESS THROUGH AN OPEN SOCIETY

If it is a given that the national endeavour is that of creating a sound basis for the provision of a better quality of life for all South Africans on the basis of a solid and highly growing economy to create wealth and wealth opportunities for all our people for the elimination of poverty, then it is presumed that these major challenges can only be realizable in a constantly changing and improving climate of freedom. Freedom is indivisible and a more free and more open society is a fundamental pre-requisite.
At every twist and turn in the quest to achieve our desired objectives, our best tools or weapons remain more debates, more discourses, more discussions, dialogue - all based on dialectical understandings. In the world of natural science, the strength and quality of one element is usually tested against another in laboratories. On the contrary, in the world of social science - where human consciousness is the highest - the quality of one idea is tested against another idea and the tested method is that of dialectical examination. Thus may the best idea prevail. That is the essence of democratic discourse.
The opposite is also true - under the climate of fear, of less democracy, less sincere debates, less frank discussions, less than good ideas prevail and mediocrity wins the day. Fear is a state of mind which can be externally or internally imposed. Relatively, the former is easy to deal with as it is objective and the imposer is known and can thus be challenged. But organic fear, which is self-imposed, is much harder to tackle since it is subjective, corrosive and self- destructive, no matter how much its owner may try to put up a brave face!
In an open society, an open democracy where there is a free flow of ideas, one where "a hundred flowers" are blooming, as Mao said, or as one ANC writer intimated, where we ought to be celebrating in a "festival of ideas", we all must be free to state:
I THINK. or I THINK NOT. I THINK SO. or I DON'T THINK SO.

The classical example on free thinking and debate is summed up in the discussion between Karl Marx and one of his critics on the question of the causality of poverty. This critic wrote extensively on the theme: The Philosophy of Poverty, arguing that it is as a result of natural differences amongst people. Marx retorted by writing on the Poverty of Philosophy regarding the failure of philosophy in explaining poverty! Hence his classical conclusion that all along philosophers have been busy interpreting the world - the task even of philosophers, is to change it!
Therefore in the challenging endeavour to address the issues of providing a better quality of life and the creation of a better country in a better world, a free-thinking, more tolerant and open society is a primary pre-requisite, where dissent is never to be regarded as disloyalty.
"Thinking requires no one's approval - implementation may. Be not fearful".
CHARACTERIZATION OF LEADERSHIP STYLES
Our contribution to this conversation on leadership as provided by the Platform for Public Deliberation led by its executive chairman, Xolela Mangcu, would be incomplete without a word on developments around the ANC, the governing party's much talked-about forthcoming December conference where a new set of leadership is to be elected.
Analysts, commentators and also some of us members of the ANC are missing the point to an extent. More light needs to be shed upon the ANC June conference which shall be engaged on critical policy issues affecting the entire country than the heat being generated under the December conference. In a way, we, the ANC, must first go through the eye of the needle in June in order to see December through.

However, it is understandable that there is much being made about the leadership succession issue in December. This is a common phenomenon in the world where policies are seen as less exciting than personalities.
The crucial point on this matter that needs to be clearly understood is that the ANC - is not only going to elect one person - in this case the President but it is also an election of the entire leadership of the National Executive Committee. Such a leadership is expected to conduct itself as a collective, mandated to take forward the work of the National Conference for the continued implementation of ANC policies especially as pertaining to government. Such a collective leadership, as always, shall be expected to prioritize the question of political and socio-economic development with special emphasis on the development agenda affecting the poorest of the poor who emanate particularly from the ranks of the working people.
This approach, however, does not in the least make the ANC a working class organization. The ANC is a multi-class organization of the people of South Africa. While its policies are biased towards the working people in general and also towards the African majority in particular, it nevertheless caters for all peace-loving, democratic South Africans who believe in its objectives and the National Democratic Revolution for the advancement of the developmental state on behalf of all our citizens - black and white.
We go into both conferences with an open mind as exemplified by the various policy discussion documents already distributed to enable robust debates. Contrary to speculation from critics, the ANC is open to acknowledging even some of the most difficult issues around existing antagonistic tensions which threaten to undermine our organizational unity. Let me quote from our organization review vol. 3: "However many challenges remain, across the organization and the broad democratic movement there is a growing tendency to carry out dirty character assassination and (the) dissemination of lies about other Comrades has reached uncontrollable proportions".

A last word on leadership: The essential ingredient of leadership is courage. Hence the saying: "the courage of one's convictions". All of us do have, in one way or another, convictions. But it is when courage fails us that convictions never see the light of day. Here a clear distinction on the leadership quality of courage should be made from that of bravado. To be brave is one thing. Bravado is entirely a different story that can lead to failure. Pallo Jordan in his April tribute to Chris Hani said that of all the qualities attributed to Chris Hani, he had one in great abundance, i.e. courage. If we can only learn from particularly this attribute, we shall never fail.
It took enormous courage on the part of ANC leaders over more than nine decades to handle various crises confronting the ANC and the people of South Africa.
These moments of courage include inter alia; the response to the betrayal of our people at the formation of the Union in 1910 which was followed by the formation of the ANC in 1912, the response to the 1956 arrest of 156 leaders of the Congress Movement, the 1960 banning of the ANC, and the launching of the Armed Struggle, right through to the conclusion of the Armed Struggle via the Codesa Constitutional breakthrough.
It took great courage on the part of 20 000 women in 1956 to march on the Union Buildings protesting against pass laws. Malibongwe. It took great courage by the Youth League, particularly under the leadership of Peter Mokaba to stare down apartheid troops as the Young Lions made apartheid unworkable and racist South Africa ungovernable.
It took personal courage on the part of OR Tambo to lead the ANC for close to three decades of difficult challenges culminating in paying the highest price with his life as a result of a stroke. It took a great deal of personal courage for the 27 year old Chris Hani, following the Wankie Operations setback in then Rhodesia to put pen to paper in a memorandum to the leadership which culminated in the groundbreaking Morogoro conference - a turning point for the ANC.

It took great courage for Madiba isolated and alone in prison, to stare the enemy in the face and call upon him to initiate discussions with the ANC outside prison which led towards the demise of the apartheid regime.
It has taken personal courage on the part of President Mbeki to challenge the negative and distorted global perspective on Africa and to identify this as the African Century for the African Renaissance.
Leadership is not about walking behind the people, pushing them forward to save one's skin. This is called tailism. Leadership is not about hiding amongst the people and not taking leadership decisions hiding behind the slogan "the masses say".
Leadership is not about running too far ahead of people where they cannot see or hear you. Such leaders can lose touch with the people and their reality. Leadership is about being sufficiently ahead of the people but near enough to be seen and heard by them, and to see and hear them to coordinate strategy and tactics.
At the end of the day, courage is about learning to unlearn our fear.
Let me conclude by quoting from a film called "Good Evening and Good Night" which provides us with insight into the United States' experience of a society which was grappling with its own fears during the era of McCarthyism.
I quote: "It is necessary to investigate before legislating but the line between investigating and prosecuting is a very fine one. (Don't overstep it). We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not truth, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
We will not walk in fear of one another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine. And remember that we are not descended from fearful men (and women) not from men who feared to write, to associate, to speak and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. This is not time for men who oppose (McCarthy's) methods to keep silent or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history but we cannot escape responsibility for the results. We proclaim ourselves and indeed as we are the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
He concluded his comments by quoting Cassius from Shakespeare's rendition of Julius Ceasar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in our selves".
I thank you for the opportunity to speak. Good evening and good night.