OPINION
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock announcement last week that she was stepping down from her position has garnered considerable response globally. Many outside of New Zealand, have lauded her bravery in establishing a new way of leading. Others have piled on in a misogynistic, cruel critique of her alleged destruction of her country.
As polarising as the views may be, her resignation has ignited a debate around politicians who hold on to power for far too long and for all the wrong reasons.
An emotional Ardern told her country that she had simply run out of gas in her tank.
“I know there’ll be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called ‘real reason’ was. I can tell you that what I’m sharing today is the only interesting angle that you will find - that after going on six years of some big challenges, I am human,” she said. “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”
During her tenure, support for Ardern swung from Jacindamania to extreme hate, but she also demonstrated how leaders with a high emotional intelligence can act differently. She famously held her daughter Neve as she addressed the United Nations general assembly. She was empathetic in her leadership.
In her statement she poignantly said that she hoped she left New Zealanders with a belief that “you can be kind, but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused” and “that you can be your own kind of leader – one who knows when it’s time to go”.
Sure, there is an argument that she fled terrible polling, declining popularity, a definite defeat for her Labour Party in the upcoming elections and a pile-on for her contentious lockdown decisions. A man sent a voice note to the Midday Report this week calling her "a disgusting cow".
In my opinion, she has demonstrated true servant leadership. Instead of sticking around doing a half-job, she has been able to identify that she no longer has the capacity or energy to do what is required of her.
Far too often politicians cling to the levers of power, desperate to retain control, instead of knowing when it is time to go.
There is a conversation to be had around burnout and being able to walk away when you’re exhausted. That is one thing.
Another is those politicians who no longer have a mandate to lead or are leading for the wrong reasons.
A prime minister or a president is there to lead a nation. It is the ultimate in leadership to recognise that you are no longer the best person to be doing that job and being willing to hand over the responsibility to someone more capable and more suited.
Instead of a dignified departure such as Ardern’s, transitions of power in Africa, Brazil and in the United States, have been marred by insurrection and violence.
Prolonged dictatorships and undemocratic term extensions are far too frequent on this continent.
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is 78-years-old and has been in power for 36 years. Cameroon President Paul Biya is nearly 90 and has been at the helm of that country since 1982. That is as long as I have been alive.
This week, as there have been growing calls for Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe (67) to be sacked, I thought of Ardern’s comments on leadership and knowing when it was time to go.
Mantashe has made it clear he is going nowhere. In his capacity as chairperson of the ANC, Mantashe told my colleague Clement Manyathela at the governing party's national elective conference at Nasrec in December that he still felt strong enough to keep going for another term. He has energy in the tank. Read the room and gauge when the country falls out of love with you, I say.
Instead of serving the citizens and their constituencies, many politicians are more interested in keeping themselves in office because of the salaries that they earn. Job security is paramount. It also gives them proximity to the purse strings and accessibility to tenders. This is why positions of power are so highly valued - so high that councillors are killed for them.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) did an analysis of public and media reporting from 2000 to 2021, and put together a database of 1,971 assassination cases in South Africa. Of the 418 political hits recorded nationwide between 2000 and 2021, 213 took place in the last seven years and 118 of those were in KwaZulu-Natal. The Moerane Commission delved into the devastating scourge of contract killings in that province. But just last week, Mpumalanga councillor Sbonelo Mthembu and two other people were gunned down.
So much is at stake in public office that politicians are losing their lives to stay in power.
Last year, the Harvard Political Review described Ardern’s rare leadership characteristics as “authentic, empathetic and bold” and found that she embraced qualities that were both traditionally masculine and feminine, rejecting the premise that leaders must be solely masculine.
“Instead of being a stubborn and aggressive leader, Ardern listens to who she represents and communicates her decisions with morals and empathy in mind. At the same time, she is still a leader who is strong enough to take potentially controversial and decisive action. Ardern’s active choice to embrace empathy, morality, and openness, traditionally feminine qualities, is what makes her a perfect example of what the leaders of the future should be like.
“Ardern’s political style is a blueprint on what effective and modern leaders can strive to be like, especially as the next generations and more young women run for political office around the world… Future leaders are no longer bound by the expectations and constraints of masculinity but can now embrace every quality that they possess and express the humanity that politics often lacks.”
Imagine if our elected leaders in South Africa shared that authenticity and empathy.
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