By Dumisani Tembe
Political leadership has been
thrust back into the mainstream of societal wellbeing as a result of the Covid19
pandemic. However, many political leaders have emerged as Covid19 project
managers, rather than providing leadership. Hence, many Covid19 updates by
political leaders, are simply at an operational level, reciting the same
message over time: "wash your hands; do social distancing; sanitize;
"vaccine is coming".
These are operational issues
that Heads of Departments (HoDs), should
do, rather than political leaders. Interestingly, the bureaucratic leadership
and management has also been notably absent in the bureaucratic visibility in
the fight against the pandemic. In the process, the political leadership has
descended to articulate what is actually an operational terrain of bureaucrats.
Perhaps, the political
leadership is unable to rise to a higher level of strategic leadership, and
thus, ends up operating at a bureaucratic level. It may be the case that executive
political leadership, is not getting empowered at its own political party
level. Alternatively, its own senior bureaucratic leaders and senior managers,
are not empowering the leadership with strategic thinking and innovative
interventions over the fight against the pandemic. Perhaps, the ruling party’s inability to establish its own think tanks is catching up with its own governance, which now manifests itself in its own
strategic limitations in fighting the pandemic. It may also be the case that it
is the combination of all these, and possibly more.
At the beginning of the
government’s response to the pandemic, it was more appropriate for political
leaders to channel the mainstream message (masking, washing hands, social
distancing) to society. They set the basis for citizenry role and responsibility
in curbing the pandemic.
However, as the pandemic
evolved, the political leadership ought to rise to the occasion and introduce
innovative and comprehensive means of dealing with the pandemic. This may well
be the case, however, given that the only message remains one of “sanitize,
social distance, wear a mask, and vaccine”, it is difficult to decipher any new
groundbreaking intervention, particularly to the poor and vulnerable masses. Updates
on the civid19 by political leaders have become very predictable. In the main,
beyond the common messages, it revolves around the sale of alcohol, the opening of
schools and universities, and vaccine promises.
Perhaps this is where the crux
of government’s intervention is exposed: that the interventions to the
middle and upper classes are not
necessarily an absolute fit to those of the poor that are homeless; with not
running water and sanitation, and are on a daily economic survival mission; or
the elderly women that have to queue on a hot sunny day on hungry stomachs, and
thirsty, for social grants.
“Don’t let a good crisis go to
waste”, remarked Winston Churchill as World War II was ending in the
mid-1940s. This was in response to the devastating impact the war has had in
Europe. Both the War and Covid19 pandemic are not necessarily “good”, but a crisis
whose response to them should accelerate development progress at a far much
faster pace than ordinarily would happen.
In this regard, Covid19 in
South Africa should propel much faster finalization of the National Health
Insurance (NHI); accelerated development of health infrastructure; human
settlements, including measures of dealing with informal settlements; the building of schooling infrastructure; and innovative measures in agriculture to
enable greater participation even by those who are not keen on commercial
agriculture. In order words, the acceleration
of the development of social infrastructure and services, is as critical as the
measures for economic development.
Whilst some might argue about
covid19 risks for the government to embark on massive social infrastructure
development, there are good lessons from health workers in this regard. This
lesson is rather – how to do the work! It is not so much whether to do it or
not, rather how to do it; and how to ensure maximum protective measures whilst working.
The leadership principle here is that leading in moments of crisis does not follow a particular formula. The
situation, rather than leadership textbooks, determines the mode of leadership.
This is guided by the urgency to realise certain outputs and outcomes. The immediate
output has been one of ensuring that covid19 does not spread broadly or even
quickly, but rather it is contained, and at the most, be eradicated. Thus, the
relevant approach around sanitization; hand washing; the wearing of masks; and
social distancing.
However, there is a substantive
outcome of ensuring that the environmental and social factors that enable the
virus to spread and sustain itself are eradicated. These are reflected in the
social infrastructure mentioned above.
All of these require a
political leadership that is acutely orientated to heightened state
performance. However, this is not limited to the ruling party-political
leadership, it equally requires the opposition political leadership to be
astute enough to offer alternatives that are convincing enough that they could
fight better the pandemic if given the state reigns. As things stand, South Africa since the
beginning of the pandemic is a de facto one-party state. Nothing substantively
separates the opposition political parties from the ruling party’s formulae
over the Covid19 pandemic.
Similarly, it requires a
bureaucratic leadership and management that is orientated towards heightened
state performance in the delivery of both socio-economic infrastructure and
services. Both the political leadership and the bureaucracy cannot, in an
ongoing pandemic, lead and operate on a business-as-usual mode, respectively. This is not a moment for standard
leadership and normal bureaucratic operations.
Apart from the Department of
Health, it is not clear whether other crucial departments are working with the necessary urgency in their
contribution to dealing with the Covid19 pandemic. The December congestions at
some of the border gates with neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, and
Mozambique is a clear indication of the business as usual by the Department of
Home Affairs.
The Police under the political
leadership of Minister Bheki Cele, has done much to relieve the memory of the
apartheid days of Law and Order, particular among the poor whose daily
activities is survival.
Schools that cater for
predominantly black children remain closed, whilst private schools that cater
to the affluent are open and learning happens through online mechanisms. In
the process, reinforcing inequality in the future generations.
As the Communist Moses Tembe
from Giyani advises, “history shows that societies in distress have a way of
producing outstanding individuals who aggressively lead societies to greater
heights, and these are mainly political leaders”. The leadership normalcy that
is currently settling in over the fight against the pandemic, risks the
normalization of the pandemic whilst it remains devastating.
As the Organisational
Development Specialist, Charles Handy, noted, “the future depends on the
unreasonable man”. That is, leaders that break from the normality of the past
and are guided by the crisis imperatives of the present.
·
Tembe is a Political Analyst,
Leadership and Strategy Consultant at the Kunjalo CDR. Twitter: @KunjaloD