Get involved in society, to help build SA
[caption id="attachment_34149" align="alignright" width="393"] CHERYL CAROLUS[/caption]
ACTIVE citizenry is what makes good leaders great. Some of the top speakers at yesterday's Nelson Mandela Bay Leadership Summit resonated the same message, addressing local leaders who attended the summit at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Business School in Port Elizabeth.
Peotona Holdings executive chair and Gold Fields chairwoman Cheryl Carolus urged leaders to take action and get involved in their societies. She said South Africa was going through a number of serious challenges, particularly the "inequality time bomb that keeps our country from being great. We need leaders to close these gaps."
Carolus criticised the passivity in South Africa, and said she wanted to ban the words "service delivery" from citizens' vocabulary.
Instead of waiting for Father Christmas to dish out, people needed to speak for themselves and refuse to be victims, Carolus said.
"If you don't like something, you need to act to end it. You need to envision an alternative. Building a democracy is not just about the destruction of apartheid, but also about the building up of alternatives. We have to build a different future, we are all adults who know Father Christmas does not exist."
People, particularly leaders, needed to become active in their children's school governing bodies, engage with their ward councillor, belong to professional bodies where they worked as well as mentor people and become involved in NGOs.
"A strong civil society has power beyond formal politics. We need to re-empower ourselves and make institutions work for us. Speak out about things that impact your life. Plough back and lift as you rise," Carolus said.
Making a case for women in African business leadership, Shanduka Group chief executive Phuti Mahanyele said good leaders and mentors teach you "when they don't even know you are watching".
She said although women made up 50% of the workforce, only 19% of women were in top management and only 9% of top management were black women.
"We are not using all of our country's talent, which is not a gender issue but an economic issue. Women are under-represented across the economy. The informal sector is the only place where women outnumber men."
Mahanyele said corporate culture could inhibit the advancement of women, particularly where they were in the minority. "Their concerns and interests are often not reflected in company practices and informal interactions. We need to challenge the social expectations around women's domestic role."
AMB Holdings Ltd non-executive chairman and Herdbuoys founder member Peter Vundla spoke about the "dearth" of leadership in the country, which he defined as a lack, scarcity and shortfall of leadership.
The Marikana massacre had shown how mining was a dangerous business, with miners prepared to die to earn a living wage, but more importantly that the event symbolised an absence and failure of leadership, he said.
Not only were the union bosses out of touch with the workers but in some cases the mining chief executives earned 726 times the salary of an average mine worker.
Vundla said the dearth of leaders could be found in all facets of life, not only in the public sector.
"We need to stop this nonsense about deployment – putting the wrong people in the right positions. We need to choose our leadership very seriously, because leadership is a serious business.
"We are not in trouble as a country. Our country is on autopilot. Our president is sitting in the cockpit and thank goodness he is not touching anything," Vundla said.
PSG Group chief executive Piet Mouton said a good leader was someone who was proactive, took responsibility, gave opinions and challenged conventional ideas.
He said good leaders also needed to develop their emotional intelligence and communicate their thoughts and interact with people. "If you want to be a leader, certain parts of your life are going to suffer. Decide which ones and then accept it," Mouton said. - Cindy Preller
