MTETO NYATI: The forgotten goal of leadership
It is time for us to take a stand, to demand more from all of our leaders
What is wrong with our leaders of today? Has the bar been set so low? Across the board — in politics, business, labour unions, the church and broader society — we see self-serving leaders who have no regard for the people they lead.
The pursuit of power is their over-arching goal. It occupies their every waking moment. How interesting it is to see the transformation that takes place when they come to power! They change overnight. They forget their lofty promises. Behaviours that used to disgust them they now embrace with ease.
Our leaders yearn for control. Power goes to their heads. They see their positions as giving them the authority to instruct others to obey without questioning. They thrive on directing others even in areas where they themselves lack knowledge and expertise. They make policy and strategic decisions without the much-needed research that leads to insightful action.
They sideline the technocrats, removing them from important decisions. They come to believe that they own people. It is all about their own egos and what they can gain for themselves. They exploit others to suit their own self-serving ends.
In a country with the highest inequality in the world, it’s all about personal wealth accumulation for our leaders. Most organisations have checks and balances to try to control this. But our leaders make it their mission to break down these controls and render them ineffective, so that they can line their own pockets.
Their influence is everywhere. They deploy their puppets in procurement. They fill tender committees with their cronies. They fill their boards with lackeys who will sanction large-scale looting. This is all done in the name of radical economic transformation.
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