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VALUED LEADERSHIP

22/07/2018 07:59:00 By Jan Sithole

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A renowned business guru made a remarkable observation and said: ‘Jesus’ leadership was empowered not by a sense of duty or obligation, or by a desire to build an image, but by compassion.”
He went on to say: “Great leaders like Jesus always build deep love for the people who move them to do far more than obligation could ever induce”.

I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Personally, I’ve always believed that leadership was a choice and that the real and true obligations of leadership could only be those that come from the leader’s heart. After all, compassion comes from nowhere else except from the heart. Anything else is nothing, but cheap old politics as far as I’m concerned.
The sense of duty on the part of the leader and the desire to see people as a collective succeed, can only come from the leader’s incubator and nowhere else. It can’t come from workshops, no matter how smart the workshops could be. It’s what is within a leader that is eventually manifested.
When a leader is full of compassion for the people, he will lead compassionately and his public programmes will reflect that compassion. I have heard old-school arguments that compassion is actually a sign of weakness. There could be nothing further from the truth.

compassion that
drives passion
Actually, to me it is strength because it is compassion that drives passion. And we all agree that it is passion that drives success. And success breeds more success just as failure breeds more failure. However, the chain of reaction begins with compassion and selflessness in the case of success, and selfishness in the case of failure.

To illustrate my point, some of the most powerful and successful leaders in history were in fact compassionate leaders. Their love for the people they led created a rare passion and patriotism that gave them a huge competitive edge especially when confronted with difficult national choices.
It doesn’t mean that these leaders were perfect; not by any stretch of imagination. But what it means is that whenever they erred, as all leaders do, they did so for the people. For example, Winston Churchill of Great Britain was completely committed to his fellow countrymen and to the Queen to such an extent that he became almost unbeatable in a battle. Ask the Germans and they’ll confirm what I’m talking about.

amassing huge riches
Churchill didn’t take himself seriously, but he took his public office as a servant of the people very seriously. He never mistook public office as a means of amassing huge riches for himself and his family. He was a prime minister for a very short while before he lost the national elections. But what he did for Great Britain during that short period is a legacy which is a subject of the beautiful history to this day.
Same applies to Mandela, whose centenary was celebrated by the Republic of South Africa last week. We learnt that whatever he the owned belongs to his for children’s foundation.
No wonder when Mandela had the slightest cough or any minor ailment, the whole world went into a panic frenzy and sometimes the South African currency fluctuated in one way or the other.
The man was great and yet he owned nothing for himself. He’s arguably a living legend and he made all of us proud to be Africans. That’s the legacy which Mandela left behind for Africa and through his exemplary leadership; Africa has an icon to look up to as a point of reference for good leadership. Same can be said about Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
Conversely, when a leader’s heart is burdened with bitterness, hatred, greed and selfishness that leader will exhibit outwardly, is the poison he carries in the inside of his heart. Selfish leaders appear to be doing something positive in the name of the ‘public good’ and more often, it is because they stand to personally benefit disproportionately in it; sometimes more than the public which they claim they’re doing it for.

People say we can only give what we are. It’s true. Our works are a reflection of our hearts. One can learn more about a leader by the things he does more than what he says. I subscribe to that adage because, when you think about it, we can’t really give what we haven’t become.

greedy, selfish leaders
The devil is incapable of doing anything good; he can only give evil things because that’s what he is in nature. Similarly, God is incapable of doing bad things. He can only give Godly gifts because that’s what He is in nature. The same principle applies with greedy and selfish leaders. They can only take and keep on taking without giving because that’s what they are in nature.
They can’t help until they make a conscious and deliberate decision to change their hearts.

Some people usually call this change repentance, and without it, this caliber of leaders can take their countries down the slippery slope propelled by their greed and selfishness. We have seen these things happen in many parts of Africa where the personal wealth of some leaders exceed the whole gross national product of the countries they lead. We’ve seen cases where the leader advances bail-out loans to their own countries at exorbitant interest rates from the same funds they secretly siphoned. As they steal from their poverty-stricken people they lead, they profess their undying love for the people on the other hand. They repeat this lie so many times that they start to believe it themselves.
This is an election year in Eswatini. I wish there was a way to read people’s hearts so that we can establish if the candidates really love the people as they claim they do.
I wish there could be a way because this country of ours cannot stomach another batch of selfish and greedy leaders again, not for another minute if not a second.
We have started seeing good Samaritan’s and father Christmas (Santa Claus) dishing out food hampers way before the actual Christmas comes just to buy votes to have an opportunity to lead selfishly. Voters should ask themselves why all of a sudden some aspiring MP’s have become so generous, which is something they never did before.
Watch out you electorate and make sure that we do not sell our souls to those mushrooming merciful individuals. Don’t reduce your vote to a commodity. Your vote is a government creating weapon with only one bullet in five years. Don’t waste it. The good future of this country and that of your children depend on that one vote.
We need men and women of integrity with pure hearts and who’re single minded about the progress of this country and its people. We need principled people who’re not influenced by the trappings of public office. I mean people who will be committed to reverse the damage this country has suffered in the past few years.

build their legacy
We need candidates who want to build a legacy they can be proud of. This country cannot stomach a batch of leaders who don’t care about the legacy they’d leave behind but only concerned about their financial benefits. We should avoid leaders whose vision cannot go beyond a week or a month.
We need leaders who will know that the decisions they make today will affect generations in the next 20 years. If they make the wrong decision today, or pass the wrong legislation, our children will suffer as a result.
We need a leadership that will know that putting the country into exorbitant debt to undertake massive white elephant projects in the face of deepening poverty, destitution and lack of service delivery on social issues such as education, health and affordable basic essential commodities like electricity, water and communications without redress is creating debt for the generations to come.

good men and women
Where can we find such leaders in our midst? There are plenty of good men and women in Eswatini who are capable of turning this country around, but they unfortunately avoid the political domain. They’re independent minded, they’re visionaries, they have the requisite skills and they can get the job done. But regrettably, they don’t take part in the so called inner circle.
Anyway, whatever candidates we get this year, let’s hope it will be people whose love for the people and commitment to the assignment are unquestionable. We cannot afford anything less than that. God knows we can’t. But I won’t hold my breath.