Listen to critics, leaders told
2004-09-12 09:23
Mpumelelo Mkhabela
Cape Town - Good leaders are those who listen to criticism - this is the advice of former president Nelson Mandela to political leaders.
Delivering the Fifth Steve Biko Lecture at the University of Cape Town this week, Mandela said leaders who viciously attacked their critics were "not leaders in the proper sense of the word".
He made no indication who he was referring to. He praised President Thabo Mbeki's leadership in the African diaspora.
"We have proven in recent years, through our president, that we are providing unity of consciousness in the African diaspora," he said.
He said leadership of any organisation, especially a political organisation, is not an achievement of a single individual.
"Anybody who despises such a collective leadership is not a real leader in the proper sense of the word.
"Those leaders who attack viciously all those who differ with them are not leaders in the proper sense of the word."
Drawing from the example of former ANC leaders Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, he said good leaders were "not crazy about positions".
When he was released from Robben Island, Tambo told him to "take your place" in the ANC, to which Mandela resisted, pointing out that Tambo deserved to lead as he had fought hard.
"I said to him the masses of our people will say I was selfish because I was on holiday in Robben Island and now, I am pushing you aside."
Mandela said: "He (Tambo) was a very humble person. He was not crazy about positions. He learned from Sisulu, who pushed for younger people who had proper qualifications, and remained in the background."
Mandela said South Africa stood to benefit greatly from reflecting on the role of consciousness, as understood by Biko, in the development and shaping of the quality of society.
Solid democratic processes and structures, and sound economic framework were in place, he said, but human solidarity values were falling short.
"It is at the level of what we once referred to as the RDP of the soul that we as a nation and people might have crucially fallen behind since the attainment of democracy.
"The values of human solidarity that once drove our quest for a human society seem to have been replaced, or are being threatened, by crass materialism and pursuit of social goals of instant gratification.
"One of the challenges of our time, without being moralistic, is to re-instil in the consciousness of our people that sense of human solidarity, of being in the world for one another and because of and through others."
- City Press