South Africans recently had a very rare opportunity to meet in person and listen to Professor Muhammed Yunus. He talked as a guest or keynote speaker at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in July 2009. The talk dealt with his unconventional views and strategy on dealing with poverty. Professor Yunus is recognized around the globe not only as an eminently educated citizen of the world. He is also revered for being an outstanding economist who tries hard to put his strategies into practice in his home country of Bangladesh.

The essence of Professor Yunus` message on the day was on the need to transform the infrastructure of our societies. He talked about the imperative to put people at the centre of our strategies and give them the support and opportunities to realize their talents while contributing towards the development of their communities. Professor Yunus talked at length about how a successful young woman he had met differed with her poor mother only in terms of the opportunities the daughter had, which the older woman never had. He said that was largely as a result of a society whose infrastructure is designed to take care of the privileged minority while locking out a majority of poor people who needed and deserved opportunities.

Steve Biko wrote the following words in 1971: How can people be prepared to put up a resistance against their overall oppression if, in their individual situations, they cannot insist on the observance of their dignity? With just this question, Biko raised an issue that is even today relevant and central to the process of developing our human resources capital.

Two major factors contributed to the decimation of individual space in the history of our society, in line with the critical question raised by Steve Biko. The first one relates to the mechanisms used by the previous regimes to instil fear in the hearts of black people so that they accept meekly their roles as determined by apartheid policies and practices. Steve Biko himself wrote a lengthy article on the subject of how fear and violence are used to dehumanise people. The second factor is the methodology employed by the liberation forces to free our society from the grip of apartheid.

Architects and agents of the old regimes knew what individual ingenuity could do and therefore invested plenty of resources in isolating and crushing individual potential. On the other hand, the liberation forces identified this mechanism of their enemies and actively discouraged their members from working as individuals. That was in order to make it difficult for their enemies to crush the value created, especially intellectual value – which people spent time and effort creating – by simply eliminating one individual.

Both the mechanisms of the old regimes and the methodologies of the liberation forces have produced a number of challenges for our society: lack of appreciation for the significance of individual space among our people; inferior levels of individual competence; and an overreliance on teams or collectives to provide solutions even for individual problems. Another aspect of apartheid life that does not seem to get the attention it deserves is the effect apartheid has had on white South Africans. There is a tendency in our society to take it for granted that because white people had all the privileges they could imagine in the old South Africa, they are today all of them competent and productive.

The assumption or notion that all white people are competent or productive today because they had resources is as incorrect as the one that says all black people are poor because they did not have resources. The gravest danger of these fallacies is that we risk failing to make the best possible use of our limited resources if we do not honestly and rigorously search for the truth.

The truth goes something like this: true to human nature, a good number of white people wallowed in self-importance under apartheid and never focused on building personal competence and their lives in general through diligent self-application. Today, there is very little that is out of the ordinary that they can offer the country to justify their privileged past. Many black people with years of interacting with white people, especially in the workplace, are all too familiar with this. This phenomenon adds to the tension that exists in our workplaces in particular and society in general.

Again true to human nature, plenty of black people also took easy refuge in self-pity and refused to lift a finger even when some resources were available. Today, they stand in long queues waiting for a government with very limited resources to rescue them. They destroy whatever few amenities there are when they get angry. This makes poverty alleviation very difficult for our society. Self-importance and self-pity are the two most pernicious pathologies or diseases that we need to address in the process of transforming our society. The quality and competence of each individual member of our society affects not only the quality of the teams we can build. It also impacts upon the choices we have when filling leadership positions. Our country has done so poorly in training leaders – I mean leaders holistically – in its history, that each time an important position goes open we have to cross our fingers.

When the time comes for Bafana Bafana to play against Spain, England or Brazil in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, there will be many instances when our fate will hinge on the matter of how well Aaron Mokoena competes against Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney or Luis Fabiano. Those instances will compel us as a nation to ponder the question of whether we gave Mokoena the best support or preparation possible for the function he has to fulfil on our behalf. We will even go further and ask ourselves whether he was the right person in the first place for the country to invest its resources in for the role. This matter goes to the heart of the problem in our society.

Look at Morne Steyn boot South Africa to victory against the top sides in world rugby. Many of us are overwhelmed – quite rightly so – by the extent of his technical ability. What very few people are able to discern or interpret is the level of composure or inner strength he commands in order to be able to parade his superior technical skill for the world to witness and envy. The Springboks, like a few other world famous South African brands, are a pocket of excellence whose lessons need to be learnt and replicated throughout our country.

As Stephen Covey and other learned people tell us in the science of people management, people must first win personal battles before attempting public battles. The world does not bend over for some under-prepared pleasure-seeker to whip it gleefully. World-class performers are people who possess both substance and style to impose their game on their global competitors. But self-mastery is a subject that continues to suffer with tragic consequences in and for our society.

Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy

South Africans recently had a very rare opportunity to meet in person and listen to Professor Muhammed Yunus. He talked as a guest or keynote speaker at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in July 2009. The talk dealt with his unconventional views and strategy on dealing with poverty. Professor Yunus is recognized around the globe not only as an eminently educated citizen of the world. He is also revered for being an outstanding economist who tries hard to put his strategies into practice in his home country of Bangladesh.

The essence of Professor Yunus` message on the day was on the need to transform the infrastructure of our societies. He talked about the imperative to put people at the centre of our strategies and give them the support and opportunities to realize their talents while contributing towards the development of their communities. Professor Yunus talked at length about how a successful young woman he had met differed with her poor mother only in terms of the opportunities the daughter had, which the older woman never had. He said that was largely as a result of a society whose infrastructure is designed to take care of the privileged minority while locking out a majority of poor people who needed and deserved opportunities.

Steve Biko wrote the following words in 1971: How can people be prepared to put up a resistance against their overall oppression if, in their individual situations, they cannot insist on the observance of their dignity? With just this question, Biko raised an issue that is even today relevant and central to the process of developing our human resources capital.

Two major factors contributed to the decimation of individual space in the history of our society, in line with the critical question raised by Steve Biko. The first one relates to the mechanisms used by the previous regimes to instil fear in the hearts of black people so that they accept meekly their roles as determined by apartheid policies and practices. Steve Biko himself wrote a lengthy article on the subject of how fear and violence are used to dehumanise people. The second factor is the methodology employed by the liberation forces to free our society from the grip of apartheid.

Architects and agents of the old regimes knew what individual ingenuity could do and therefore invested plenty of resources in isolating and crushing individual potential. On the other hand, the liberation forces identified this mechanism of their enemies and actively discouraged their members from working as individuals. That was in order to make it difficult for their enemies to crush the value created, especially intellectual value – which people spent time and effort creating – by simply eliminating one individual.

Both the mechanisms of the old regimes and the methodologies of the liberation forces have produced a number of challenges for our society: lack of appreciation for the significance of individual space among our people; inferior levels of individual competence; and an overreliance on teams or collectives to provide solutions even for individual problems. Another aspect of apartheid life that does not seem to get the attention it deserves is the effect apartheid has had on white South Africans. There is a tendency in our society to take it for granted that because white people had all the privileges they could imagine in the old South Africa, they are today all of them competent and productive.

The assumption or notion that all white people are competent or productive today because they had resources is as incorrect as the one that says all black people are poor because they did not have resources. The gravest danger of these fallacies is that we risk failing to make the best possible use of our limited resources if we do not honestly and rigorously search for the truth.

The truth goes something like this: true to human nature, a good number of white people wallowed in self-importance under apartheid and never focused on building personal competence and their lives in general through diligent self-application. Today, there is very little that is out of the ordinary that they can offer the country to justify their privileged past. Many black people with years of interacting with white people, especially in the workplace, are all too familiar with this. This phenomenon adds to the tension that exists in our workplaces in particular and society in general.

Again true to human nature, plenty of black people also took easy refuge in self-pity and refused to lift a finger even when some resources were available. Today, they stand in long queues waiting for a government with very limited resources to rescue them. They destroy whatever few amenities there are when they get angry. This makes poverty alleviation very difficult for our society. Self-importance and self-pity are the two most pernicious pathologies or diseases that we need to address in the process of transforming our society. The quality and competence of each individual member of our society affects not only the quality of the teams we can build. It also impacts upon the choices we have when filling leadership positions. Our country has done so poorly in training leaders – I mean leaders holistically – in its history, that each time an important position goes open we have to cross our fingers.

When the time comes for Bafana Bafana to play against Spain, England or Brazil in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, there will be many instances when our fate will hinge on the matter of how well Aaron Mokoena competes against Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney or Luis Fabiano. Those instances will compel us as a nation to ponder the question of whether we gave Mokoena the best support or preparation possible for the function he has to fulfil on our behalf. We will even go further and ask ourselves whether he was the right person in the first place for the country to invest its resources in for the role. This matter goes to the heart of the problem in our society.

Look at Morne Steyn boot South Africa to victory against the top sides in world rugby. Many of us are overwhelmed – quite rightly so – by the extent of his technical ability. What very few people are able to discern or interpret is the level of composure or inner strength he commands in order to be able to parade his superior technical skill for the world to witness and envy. The Springboks, like a few other world famous South African brands, are a pocket of excellence whose lessons need to be learnt and replicated throughout our country.

As Stephen Covey and other learned people tell us in the science of people management, people must first win personal battles before attempting public battles. The world does not bend over for some under-prepared pleasure-seeker to whip it gleefully. World-class performers are people who possess both substance and style to impose their game on their global competitors. But self-mastery is a subject that continues to suffer with tragic consequences in and for our society.

Gibson Sakong

Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy