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South Africa needs leadership that is sincere, honest and exemplary. It must be leadership that is free from deceit and pretence.
About 48 parties will contest the elections on Wednesday. All exist because they believe they can provide leadership to the masses. But the question is whether they can provide inspirational leadership.
Will they have what it takes to motivate the people to not only look forward to a better life but to do the right things?
The ANC has called on its former presidents, Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, to help rescue it from political parties that are likely to take a few – but critical – votes from the ANC.
Mbeki said he could not electioneer for the ANC in the past because of the wrong that was happening in the party. Such wrongs were mirrored in the government, too.
Mbeki said he could not – in all honesty – say to other people that they should vote for the ANC. But he said there was a degree of accountability in the party’s manifesto and that was why he had decided to back the ANC again.
Read: Former ANC 'prodigal sons' Mbeki and now Motlanthe reiterate their support
Of significance in what Mbeki said is not per se about his support for the ANC but rather his support of a quality leadership. Mbeki’s leadership was embedded and guided by honesty, truthfulness and sincerity to the public. He demonstrated how political parties should lead with conviction to do the right thing and serve the people.
When giving the OR Tambo Memorial Lecture in October 2017, Mbeki said the best way to honour Tambo was to live by the example he set, which included being loyal to the truth. By so saying, Mbeki attempted to inspire and exemplify trust and accountability to the ANC and to South Africans in general.
At the High Level Event II on Leadership for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 21 2014, Mbeki submitted that leaders needed to be frank with one another about the wrong things that fellow leaders were doing. He said there was a need for a truthful self-assessment to produce the leadership that Africa wanted and needed.
Former president of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa went further, saying leaders should be able to implant attributes, such as integrity, into the population and that political parties should reflect those values and embody those aspirations.
In 2005 Mbeki used his powers as president to release his then deputy, Jacob Zuma, from his responsibilities after a court judgment on the corruption case of Schabir Shaik.
Mbeki’s bold and pragmatic decision was evidence that he was a leader who understood his responsibilities and was committed to inspire a clean administration in the government and all organs of state.
He drew a thick, bold line between the state and his political party. He understood that the interests of the state and its people far surpassed those of his party.
Mbeki upheld, defended and respected the Constitution as the supreme law of the republic.
After Zuma was released from office, Mbeki said: “I trust that what we have done today, and will do in future, together, will continue to strengthen our democracy, reinforce the accountability of those who hold public office and deepen the confidence of the masses of our people in their elected representatives and our organs of state.”
South Africa needs and requires leadership that is able to: notice when it does the wrong things; implant sincerity and integrity in its population; take bold and pragmatic decisions that inspire the people; and lead by being exemplary and loyal to the truth but also admonish impropriety conducted by any person, including comrades.
Who will hold the fort of a sincere presidency beyond Mbeki and Motlanthe?
Sedupane is an advocate, and a constitutional and human rights law specialist
