South Africa - I demand

It has been a dark week in South Africa and for once it has nothing to do with the local energy supplier. A racist video has surfaced and negative images have flashed across the globe and the international media have turned on the country saying that our purported “transformation” is only a façade. The country is hurting.
Compare this to the way the UK’s national pride has swelled this week when the story broke that Prince Harry had quietly been going about his duties in Afghanistan for the last 2 months. The “Brits” are proud of the prince because he proved he is a true leader – he could have stuck his head down and done drills on a UK base – instead he accepted the responsibility of being a leader and walked out with the rest of the troops to do battle.
Last night I sat around a table where there were 3 highly qualified engineers all taking their skills out of the country. None of them wants to go but the lack of leadership around tackling socio-economic problems is a worry for them. They can live with a bit of crime, they can live with electrical problems now and then – they can’t live with uncertainty.
This editorial is a not a “soft and fluffy” filler piece – it’s a damn battle cry for THE LEADERS in this country to stand up. I’m not talking about politicians – they are not leaders. Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are not leaders until they show they can lead. When they step up to the plate and start acting like leaders they cease to become mouthpieces, until they can do that they don’t feature. Jacob Zuma – if you want to lead this country down the line – you go and get in the trenches with everyone else.
I am talking to the principals at the school who are developing the minds of the next generation of young South Africans, I am talking to the business owners who are losing skilled staff and whose very livelihoods depend on their businesses being successes. I am talking to Alan Knott-Craig of I-Burst – damn straight sir – you lead – you tell your staff why SA is the best place on earth.
Ordinary South Africans – you have the same responsibility. Make demands of your leaders. If your business holds weekly staff meetings then you demand that your boss steps up and tells you every reason why you SHOULD be here and contributing to the. If you are a pupil in a school you demand that your principal takes responsibility for pushing your education and for inspiring you to learn more.
Before readers turn to me and say its very difficult to become inspired by this when they are being attacked in their own homes, taxed to death, frightened of what the next president might do and having their businesses crippled by electricity supply issues. I’ve also been shot at, I’ve also lost a bucket load of business at the end of last year but I refuse to accept it. We have a responsibility to ourselves to show our generation can and will lead.
We need to look at ourselves. We are quick to blame and complain but when was the last time we volunteered and gave something back? When the electricity crisis hit how many of us made any effort to change to energy savings globes? We sat around blaming people and not taking the responsibility to make a difference by finding ways to conserve energy. We show plenty of “ingenuity” by making and distributing spoof videos but we can’t do the same for education material? What about all these people who complain about crime – when was the last time you got involved in a community development or neighbourhood community forum? Hell when was the last time you actively went out and made a donation to a charity that your own business or school didn’t organise?!
An article cannot change the way a community thinks. What it can do is it can make its own demand of the leaders in this country. If one leader can inspire those around him then this concept will be “paid forward” to the next leader and so on
South Africa – demand your leaders in all walks of life stand up and lead – the true measure of them is not how they perform when things are easy and business is successful. They are measured how they perform in adversity.