Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka and UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Robert Balfour. Images: Shelley Christians/UWCPublic Protector, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, called on those entrusted with leadership not to confuse the role they’ve been given but to act ethically to restore faith in public institutions, which have been eroded through corruption.
Adv Gcaleka was the main speaker at the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) second Leadership Series event this year.
Welcoming Adv Gcaleka, UWC’s Executive Director for Human Resources, Meko Magida, said the Leadership Series was established, primarily, to foster leadership excellence, ethical practices and transformative management within the UWC community.
“The Series aligns with UWC’s Institutional Operating Plan (IOP), particularly Goal 4, which is the people framework, and Goal 8 with leadership, governance and management - emphasising the cultivation of effective leadership and governance practices at the University”, said Magida.
Addressing a packed Senate chamber under the theme, “Rebuilding Trust in Public Institutions: Ethics and Governance in Times of Transition”, Adv Gcaleka emphasised the importance of leadership, giving insight on how her leadership style has transformed the Office of the Public Protector since being appointed into the role three years ago, at a time when the organisation was mired in controversy.
“Many of the things that go wrong in our country, and even across the globe, are when those who have been entrusted with leadership confuse the authority and the power they’ve been given by the people and the Constitution to be theirs”, said Adv Gcaleka.
Quoting the famed Greek philosopher Aristotle on ethics, she said it describes one's character, “and who you are as an individual”.
She explained that those who have been chosen to lead have to come to terms with the responsibility of leadership. This often means taking a backseat and empowering and equipping others within the organisation to lead.
Adv Gcaleka said that when individuals had trust in public institutions, they expected their interactions with authorities to have a positive outcome, as opposed to one that was detrimental to them.
“Conversely, a lack of trust in public institutions can lead to a range of social and political problems, and mostly as you have seen in our country, like economic challenges. A decline in institutional trust is linked to societal fragmentation in which citizens become more prone to endorse populist establishments, which really do not speak to the true values and the principles of our constitution”, said Adv Gcaleka.
Earlier, UWC’s Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert John Balfour, said that in South Africa and across the globe, confidence in public institutions has been strained by political shifts, economic pressures and the widening gap between policy commitments and lived experience.
“As public sector professionals and citizens in our wonderful country, it is our responsibility to not only help institutions to manage their transitions, but to strengthen their legitimacy by promoting ethical leadership and practising from within at every given opportunity that we have,” said Prof Balfour.
The programme director, Prof Christi van der Westhuizen (Sociology, UWC), in her introduction to the gathering, quoted from a new South African book on leadership, titled, ‘This Generation Leads’. In a chapter on ethical leadership, Zipho Buthelezi, a young business leader in the mining industry, writes that the word ‘leader’ is derived from an Old English word that means “to go before as a guide”.
Prof Van der Westhuizen proposed that the audience consider what it means for a leader to go before as a guide. She asked: “What would this mean when combined with the idea of ethics, as in ‘ethical leadership’?”
She quoted Zipho Buthelezi on the characteristics of ethical leadership: integrity, competence, responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency, and concluded: “These are the characteristics that those who guide should internalise and make part of themselves.”
In closing the programme, the HR Director, Ms Elvida Sias called for action from all stakeholders at the University that “when good governance and processes intersect with self-interest, we remind ourselves of our individual responsibility to reflect on the principles of integrity and ethical practices”.
The Human Resources Department, in collaboration with university stakeholders, will continue to organise seminars to promote leadership as a key theme, and invite all to take up the opportunity to attend these conversations when the opportunity presents itself.
