DURBAN, October 21 (ANA) – No one is born a leader or has a special biological disposition that determines leadership, according to former presidential spokesman and cabinet minister Mac Maharaj.
“No one is born a leader. There is no gene that has been identified that determines that one will be a leader. Leaders are moulded in the course of struggle. Becoming a leader is a process, much the way iron is turned in the white hot heat of the furnace into steel,” he said in Durban in a speech at an event celebrating the life of struggle stalwart Oliver Tambo, who would have turned 100 this year.
Titled “Greater than the sum of its parts”, Maharaj’s address drew on the lives of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, and other stalwarts.
“Tambo was a master of the art of ensuring his forces marched in step and kept moving forward with their eyes on the future, never allowing them to cannibalise themselves, for the revolution to devour itself,” he said.
The critical qualities of leaders came to the fore when their choices resulted in unintended consequences.
“How does one react in the face of unintended consequences? There will be those who spend time moaning, groaning, and playing the blame game. At times there will also be the one who claims he or she had expressed opposition to the plan when the decision was taken, as if this absolves him or her from responsibility for the setback, the one who wants to be seen always as the ‘I was right’,” he said.
There would also be those who looked at what had happened to learn from mistakes and turn the unintended into opportunities instead of setbacks.
“[They] chart a way forward that gathers your forces, recoups, and goes forward, and therefore the one to shoulder responsibility for the consequences and the way ahead.”
Tambo, Mandela, and Walter Sisulu were “an amazing trio”, Maharaj said.
“Throughout their relationship there is not a whiff of evidence of rivalry, of competing for positions or limelight. National liberation embodied in the Freedom Charter was the goal. Everything of oneself had to be subjugated to that single objective. They competed only in one regard – to devote every ounce of their energy to the cause,” he said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
