Public Service Commission Chairperson Somadoda Fikeni says struggle stalwarts like Moses Kotane, Oliver Tambo and Winnie-Madikizela-Mandela and many others, are extremely different from today’s leaders.
He says, unlike today’s leaders, they were fully involved and grounded within communities, something which is currently lacking.
Fikeni was speaking during an inaugural annual lecture of Moses Kotane at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North West University on Fridaynight.
“I went back to look at the biographies of these leaders. They were organic, they were grounded within the communities. They were fully involved in the life of the communities. So, they did not need petition or correspondence to understand what problems were. Those were organic leaders embedded within the conditions of their times and their communities. Hence their articulation did not even need speech writers. But today a political leader on average is a career politician.”
Fikeni believes there is a need for a national dialogue in order to address the problems the country is facing.
“There is a need for a national dialogue so that we can have consensus on what the problem is. More importantly where we want to go that which will produce social compact. Such national dialogue should not be partisan or confined to a political party, because we have seen the toxicity of political parties and their internal dynamics.”
PSC Chair delivers inaugural Moses Kotane lecture:
