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Zim, Kenyan leadership 'failed'
24/04/2008 14:07 - (SA)
Cape Town - Zimbabwe and Kenya are dramatic and distressing examples of failed leadership or at the very least unethical leadership, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Thursday.
Addressing a conference on moral and ethical leadership at Stellenbosch University, Tutu said it seemed to the observer that in both Kenya and Zimbabwe, the presidential incumbents refused to play by the rules.
They seemed to be averse to accepting the verdict of the polls and instead of stepping down with dignity by conceding defeat, were ready to drag their countries into a maelstrom of violence unmoved by the prospect of causing the deaths of hundreds of their innocent compatriots and injuries to many others.
"In a contrast that could not have been more stark, we witnessed the extraordinarily smooth transition that took place in Botswana when one President stepped down even before the end of his term to enable his successor to have the advantage of being an incumbent president going into that country's Presidential elections.
"The transition was so smooth that it was uneventful and caused hardly a ripple on our radar screens.
"So what is a good leader? I would place at the top of my list this attribute. The good leader exists for the sake of the people, of the led."
The good leader was thus altruistic, selfless and almost always prodigal with himself/herself for the sake of others.
Furthermore, the good leader was almost by definition a person of impeccable integrity.
The good leader would not sail close to the wind and would, as someone of irreproachable integrity, be ready rather to resign than remain in office when serious doubts had been raised.
"In our part of the world they hold on for dear life or with impunity even when the suspicions of dubious conduct were overwhelming, playing havoc with public confidence in the various arms of government," Tutu said.
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