Former SA Ambassador to the USA, Ebrahim Rasool, says the country needs intellectual leaders who are competent and possess the ability to deal with challenges that currently face the country.
Rasool was delivering the third annual Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Public Lecture at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape under the theme Value-Based Leadership.
Annual Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Public Lecture on intellectual leadership, not demagoguery:The former premier of the Western Cape stresses that these leaders must also be courageous and bold in speaking truth to power.
I think we both need intellectuals and intellectualism back into our politics. I think South Africa in the last decade or so has slid into anti-intellectualism. We dont like the debate of ideas or engaging with ideas a lot of wrong things happen.
Meanwhile, the Anglican Church, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says elections allow citizens to exercise their rights, thereby improving their lives.
Former Eastern Cape Sports, Arts and Culture MEC, Neela Hoosain, who was part of the discussion, states that the country needs leaders who will put the interests of citizens first.
One of the challenges that we are facing is the lack of leaders that still have basic humanity in them and sincerely care that people are struggling. Our leaders have lost all humanity and are more about their own gains and until we go back to the basics of ubuntu, we are going to have the challenges that face our people, she says.
As they head to the polls, some of the universitys students in attendance maintained that they found the lecture insightful and informative.
They highlighted that through the lecture they were also able to better understand the concept of democracy and how to hold leaders accountable and that transformational leadership is imperative.
