Leaders must act quickly to adapt to student protest

Shifts in our society are and will compel leaders to change, to become more authentic, to “get off their podiums” and truly serve the people rather than entertain their own belief that the people are there to serve them.

Leading this attitudinal shift is our next generation, the higher education students of South Africa. They are fearless, refuse to automatically respect leaders because of their positions, and have the power via social media and physical energy to unite and rally together in great numbers for a simple cause they believe in.

They truly can be the generation that becomes unstoppable, only to be tamed by those with genuine motives that have their trust and a passion for fairness.

Divided leadership

When masses unite in a single-minded and clear cause they will only respect and allow themselves to be led by an equally united leadership team. And let’s be frank – the South African government and even the ANC leadership seems divided, fragmented and not respected sufficiently to lead this united body of youngsters.

As a result, the leadership of this country has already lost control. With the current #FeesMustFall situation our government can do one or more of three things: 1) Hope the student leadership remain authentic in their cause and not become power hungry; 2) intensify violent resistance with armed forces – show them who is boss through an aggressive push back, as was done in the past; 3) humble themselves and consciously start a long journey of truly connecting with their own purpose and the needs of the people – in essence, build trust.

We know that number two is not an option and in fact almost impossible in today’s highly visible world, without suffering irreparable collateral damage. History has witnessed many student uprisings before. However, this year may be a perfect storm where several factors collide, making the current scenario unprecedented. At the core of it is a modern, fearless younger generation, with the unmatched power of connectedness of technology.

From the events of the past two weeks, it is easy to see that there is a general trust deficit between leaders and followers in our society, coupled with the reality or perception of weak leadership at the top. There is also a sense that current leadership has been underestimating the frustrations of the younger generation, instead putting loyalty politics at the heart of everything it does. This will never replace accountability.

In the last few days the leaders of the country are being called to account. And unfortunately our leaders are simply not prepared for this type of occurrence. Ironically, they should be the best prepared, considering their struggle credentials, background and their understanding of the history of this country.

On the other hand, the student leaders seem to outshine the struggle heroes who are supposed to be seasoned leaders. Perhaps because the seasoned leaders have lost their way, forgotten what it’s like to unite passionately behind a cause, to serve the people. Many of them have fallen prey to serving lower values like bureaucracy, compliance, entitlement, pride, defending or protecting a leader rather than a cause; wealth generation at the cost of a higher purpose and holding on to power for the sake of it. The list is endless.

But let me illustrate what an authentic leader could have done on the day that students marched to Luthuli House. I know it sounds simple with hindsight, but imagine Gwede Mantashe stepping out of the building on the same level as the youngsters and proactively suggesting they sit down to discuss matters eye to eye.

This proactive stance and symbol of humility and strength would have disarmed the crowd and won them over immediately. Apparently this is what vice-chancellors across the country did – when students asked them to sit down they did.

Instead, Mantashe came out elevated, with a proud, stubborn attitude of “I am the leader”, or “these youngsters must respect me”, or “I cannot negotiate from a position of weakness by giving in all the time”, or “I must show the world that these youngsters will not scare or manipulate me/us, the powerful ANC”.

Those that still hold on to these beliefs that may have driven Mantashe’s behaviour of last week would have felt that he showed his strength. But those that matter most in this particular battle – the students – lost respect for him. He did not build trust but broke it down even further. Trust someone and they will trust you back. Mantashe did not trust the students and they will not trust him back.

What could President Jacob Zuma have done had he been in tune with brilliant leadership? He could have sat waiting for the students, until they all arrived. And then, at the right moment made his bold announcement, with the education and student leaders flanking him, raising their hands as a token of solidarity.

Missed opportunity

And then he could have gone down and shaken some hands, looked the students in the eyes. Instead, he was an everyday political leader that always makes crowds wait in the sun, because they (politicians) are the important ones, until the crowds become agitated and take it out on each other, or the police.

He made his announcement via a television screen and walked away from a great opportunity, no doubt with the compliments of his advisors echoing in his ears: “Good job Mr President! They will say the government listened to the people. That was a victory”. But in fact, the students lost all respect and trust, walking away with a belief that he opened a can of worms and that this is only the beginning.

What is happening is good, but of course it comes at a cost – no good has ever been achieved without a price. The positive is that up until today no one, not even the opposition, had managed to humble some of our leaders – to shift their attitudes significantly – not with the persistent, aggressive criticism and disruptions of opposition parties, or wealthy business owners that pull the purse strings for politics to function, or the media that incessantly yet importantly look over the shoulders of politicians, or a relentless public protector.

It takes youngsters to expose and force them to become real and abide by promises, to lead as they ought to.

Having said all this, leading such an uprising in an effective, co-ordinated and controlled way is not an easy task and must never be underestimated. As numbers increase the space for outside forces to infiltrate its ranks grow and then things go wrong. Student leaders must guard vigilantly against radical, one-sided and tunnel vision agendas that will aim to hijack their movement, which seems to have pure and clear intentions to build this country.

Adriaan Groenewald (@Adriaan_LP) is a leadership expert and author of recently released Seamless Leadership: Universal lessons from South Africa (@SeamlessLeader). He presents the Leadership Platform show on Mondays 12pm-1pm on CliffCentral (@LeadershipPform)

** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.

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