Last week I spent three days in the country of my birth, Lesotho. The purpose was to discuss the issues of ethics. This was on the invitation of the Central Bank of Lesotho.
While the Central Bank has been spared the ravages of scandal and mismanagement, the leadership of the bank is not complacent and is alive to the prospect of visitation that may include undesirable visitors. The context of this is captured in two possible forms of visitors. One that is desirable and the other that is undesirable.
As regards the desirable visitor, the proverb applied refers to a sorghum and where the visitor is an undesirable one, the proverb applied refers to death. The paradox, however, is grounded in the universal expectation of having a visitor. In the case of a positive expectation the visitor is “Mabele ke ngoetsi ea malapa ohle”, which translates into sorghum is a daughter-in-law of all families. For the negative prospects, the proverb reads “Lefu ke ngoetsi ea malapa ohle”, which translates into death is a daughter-in-law of all families.
This philosophical observation suggests that in order to limit and or eliminate the prospect of a visit by a negative daughter-in-law, which is death, you need to put measures in place to avoid this prospect.
The invitation that the Central Bank extended to me was to share what my experiences were as regards practice in ethics. I benefited greatly from the other lead speaker and discussant of this topic.
This was no other than Archbishop Tlali Lerotholi with whom I engaged for no less than four hours sharing experiences and challenges in ethics. As a philosopher and a man of the cloth, he has heightened philosophical and practical experiences on ethics. These include, but are not limited to, ethical dilemmas regarding the life-and-death choices that people in medical science may have to take.
The Central Bank of Lesotho as a corporate citizen has taken the question of ethics to a different level in that they adopted locally developed practices such as those inspired by Morena Mohlomi, the teacher and mentor of King Moshoeshoe, the founder of the Basotho nation.
The Director’s Institute of Lesotho have created a code out of Morena Mohlomi called the Mohlomi Code. Morena Mohlomi, a philosopher, medical doctor, and well-travelled personality, established a leadership academy at Ngoliloe in the then territory of Lesotho, which was annexed in today’s Free State.
The credo of the academy was founded on the principle that “a responsible leader pursues peaceful and productive alliances, accommodates stakeholders, and uses new instruments of power to create intergenerational value”.
The question that our discussions had to confront were neatly broken down in what Archbishop Lerotholi classified into the 13 Ps of leading through ethics.
The first P related to people as beings that bring their personalities, abilities, talents and skills to the work environment. The second P was about the reason for existence of the institution within which the first P of people has to fit in. The third P was about procurement, especially of people who are recruited into the institution, while the fourth P was about philosophy, which forms the foundational thinking of the institution, and the question is of how the newly recruited are brought into the organisation.
The fifth P was about principles, which are the pillars of an institution, then followed the sixth pillar, which is about policies and protocols that unfold into the seventh P of processes and procedures. The seven Ps are not enough, you need priorities and plans as the eighth P, which sets in motion the ninth P – the programme of action which should of necessity include alliances.
A good plan requires performance indicators, which is the tenth P. The eleventh P refers to power relations which invoke the twelfth P, which is Power Relations which is the political economy of decision making. Finally, the thirteenth P, is about public image.
I found the 13 P approach resonating with experiences that I had as a practice as the Statistician-General of South Africa. Through practice we inadvertently brought the Ps to the surface and showed how our effort paid off in sustaining an institution, which we navigated successfully in the making of Stats SA.
There is immense value that Morena Mohlomi brings to our business schools, especially through his protégé, King Moshoeshoe, who practised the teachings of Morena Mohlomi through his innovative practices of building granary and eliminating cannibalism, building peace and creating intergenerational wealth.
The current crop of leaders can learn from this line of thought to provide African solutions to African problems.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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