We stand on the brink of a new dawn. This world has seen a revolution in the creation of news, its distribution and its veracity.
Human beings are being offered numerous technologically driven platforms to conduct business, communicate socially and imbibe news in real time.
It is because of this that we need to produce leaders who are able to calmly navigate treacherous waters.
One only has to look across the oceans to a leader who believes in immediate tweets to realise that certain individuals are better equipped to run a reality show then lead a country. So what constitutes a good leader?
He/she should be intelligent, an independent thinker, bold, brave, strong, capable of listening to everyone and learning from anyone.
He/she should be compassionate, ethical, empathetic and wise. He/she should be tactically brilliant and a political chess player of note. He/she should be capable of thinking ahead with problem-solving techniques honed to a fine art.
A good leader should consult widely and be humble enough to handle constructive criticism.
A good leader looks in the rear-view mirror of his nation’s history and uses the lessons learnt to build a strong and healthy new democracy.
What we should not see in a good leader are emotional petulant outbursts demonstrating poor reasoning skills and even worse, the tendency to grasp at derogatory character assassinations on those who offer constructive criticism.
How many of my fellow South Africans have had to endure cringeworthy performances of our MPs in televised snippets transmitted all over the world. Surely a nation boasting Nelson Mandela, as the father of South African democracy, should produce more then its sorry handful of good leaders. Nelson Mandela was a man forged in the fires of suffering, forgiveness and redemption.
This gave him a philosophical wisdom that few have matched or will ever match. However, in the absence of such a cauldron, how can we prepare our leaders so that they become equipped with the skills necessary to design a future for all our people.
A normal education even with a university degree is not good enough.
I believe that a course in “Philosophy and Leadership” should be offered by the philosophy departments in our leading tertiary education institutes. It has to be designed by these departments.
Once this is done, I suggest that all current leaders and aspiring leaders complete this course.
So, Mr President, I have noted that you plan to prepare the way for constructive changes to our esteemed constitution.
You go where angels fear to tread. Be that as it may, I suggest the following amendment.
That you entrench it in the constitution that all aspiring political leaders be compelled to complete the “Philosophy and Leadership” course.
The upside for you is that you will be able to engage with leaders from every political spectrum who will command your respect if not your allegiance.
And that, Mr President, would make us worthy of a man like Nelson Mandela. Indeed, it would!