As South African citizens head to pivotal national and provincial elections, the nation stands at a point of uncertainty 30 years after democracy. 

As the nation faces deep societal and economic crises, the need for decisive and ethical leadership is of paramount importance. 

The words of Professor Bonang Mohale – a renowned business leader, university chancellor and thought leader – echo profoundly during this critical time. 

Speaking at Trialogue’s Business in Society Conference 2024 on 14 May, Mohale drew attention to the inextricable link between ethical leadership and the prosperity of a nation. 

“Maybe, just maybe, as a direct result of our conversation this morning we might be able to have a full appreciation of this notion of leadership – that it has nothing to do with the title on a business card or the corner office but it’s that anybody that feels called upon to lead is a leader; that leadership is the other-centered not self-centered.” 

Mohale said it was a “privilege to improve the quality of lives of others, not an opportunity to enrich self”. 

“I hope that we will really have an appreciation that doing good is good for everyone; that business itself cannot continue to be an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty.” 

Delivering the keynote address on the first day of the two-day conference, he urged the 600-plus delegates and online participants to vote in this year’s polls to elect the leaders they wanted and not to be “mere complainers about the type of leadership we’ve inherited”. 

“[Conference MC Nozipho Tshabalala] suggests that we exercise our independent minds 15 days from now and ensure that we go and make our important “X.” In Australia, if you don’t vote, you go to prison. In this country, it should be even more dire because people died and made the supreme sacrifice so that we can exercise this choice. Let’s not be mere complainers about the type of leadership we’ve inherited; instead, let’s choose the leadership we want, have earned, and deserve,” said Mohale. 

The University of the Free State chancellor listed some of the problems besetting the country, including load-shedding, water-shedding, the decline of the economy and the high levels of historical tertiary education debt. 

He implored business leaders to take the money their organisations have already made available to invest in education for poor students and to clear the historical debt. 

Mohale noted that many companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange focused on education in their social impact strategies and programmes. 

“So if we approach these companies and simply ask that they take the money that has already been approved by their boards and put it in a historical debt fund, we would be able to wipe out the entire R16.5 billion historical debt not in 30 years but in one year because we dared to have a compelling vision and we had the courage of our convictions. We wouldn’t even be asking them to make more profits or to increase their business footprint, but by wiping out historical debt we give not future leaders but today’s leadership a little bit of hope to ensure that they don’t have to suffer the indignity of food insecurity and period poverty.” 

Mohale, who is currently the chair of publicly-listed Bidvest, reminded the audience that former president Nelson Mandela noted that education was “the surest way in which one can transcend social classes”. 

“Born poor in Alexander, after 20 to 23 years of hard work and application you are able to afford a house in the leafy suburbs of Bryanston not because you won a tender but because you have earned it, you can afford it and you deserve it. Education matters because when one steadily burns the midnight oil, one gains access to the domain of knowledge and wisdom, the world of many, the world that cannot be conquered without the persistent crusade. Unscrupulous politicians hate educated blacks because educated blacks make it impossible to be fooled by unscrupulous politicians.” 

Mohale ended his address lamenting the impact of corruption. 

“In 1957 with Ghana free and Kwame Nkrumah as its leader, we blamed colonialism for poverty; that they stole and pillaged but in the last 60 years the people who’ve made us poorer are those that are our very own that steal from their children from the money’s due to their education and [personal protection equipment] money that’s supposed to buffer them against the pandemic.”