N Kganyago: Youth Month

15 June 2006

Theme: Youth Month Community Project

Regional Manager Mr. Frederick Johnson
Senior Managers of the Cape Town
Regional Office
Colleagues
Distinguished guests and children

We are gathered today to celebrate youth day, a day which I must say is in
one sense not ours, but at the same time ours. I say this because as the saying
goes, the world is a place in which we live today so we can bequeath it to our
children, so they can bequeath it to their children, who can bequeath to
successive generations to come.

In recognising the importance of this eternal link between ourselves and
those who come before and after us, we have chosen to celebrate Youth Day
through our own special brand of team-building. We have decided to remind
ourselves about where we as civil servants come from by spending the day giving
something back to the community.

From our position of relative privilege we have decided to give one day of
our time and energy to you, the future of this country. In this way we
recognise the fact that without me there is no you and that there would be no
Public Works without the community which we serve.

We do this realising that one day is just that, only one day. But today we
hope that this one day will make a difference not only in your lives, but also
in ours.

As we conduct this exercise it is imperative that we seek to understand the
historical basis of June 16 1976, the day our children took to the streets in
protest against linguistic violence and oppression of the apartheid state.

We know that on June 16 1976 the children of Soweto took to the streets for
the national liberation of all. We know that their actions on that day and
subsequently during phases of the liberation struggle served to change the
course of this country’s history. For this reason we today have the most
progressive constitution in the world which sets the basis for the achievement
of a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and a prosperous nation.

I am therefore here today to call on all of us to retrace the steps of the
youth of June 16 1976. We may not be able to do this literally today, but I
think the question is what key lessons of leadership can we draw today from
those young people of Soweto and other townships? I ask this question in the
light of the fact that this is an exercise in team-building, between and among
members of the community and the staff of the Regional Office.

Late United States economist and author of the famed book, “The Age of
Uncertainty”, Kenneth Galbraith says of leadership and I quote: “All of the
great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to
confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This,
and not much else, is the essence of leadership”.

Coco Chanel, the creator of a French-based fashion empire who stresses the
need for identity as key to leadership says: “It is amazing how many cares
disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone.”

Lewis H. Lapham says of the character of leadership: “Leadership consists
not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral
rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and
follower alike the burdens of self-restraint”.

Finally, because nature does not allow a vacuum, according to Bishop Desmond
Tutu that is why he became in his words a “leader by default”.

I challenge you to identify the categories which have been identified by
these quotations. Are we leaders by default? Are we aware of the need for
identity and the mental liberation of leadership? Do we have the moral
rectitude to exercise constant restraint of emotion? Today I want to leave a
few lessons that I drew from June 16 1976. Here I use some of the paradigms
employed by Phinda Madi in 10 Lessons from Shaka the great.

I believe that a leader:
1. Must build a sense of mission, be the first to know
2. must lead from the front, go where angels fear to tread
3. be obsessed with the best available technology, ever thrive for perfection
and lastly,
4. never believe in his/her own public relations.

In conclusion, as President Thabo Mbeki reminds us, “At the height of the
struggle against apartheid, we dared to hope that South Africa could achieve a
peaceful transition to a non-racial democracy. The President goes further:
“Having achieved that miraculous objective, we must again dare to hope that
Africa can seize the opportunity to build a new future of prosperity and
renewal.

“The beacons of a brighter future are there across the continent,
illuminating a new way. And so, we dare to hope for Africa's children. And we
shall work together to turn our hopes into reality.”

Enjoy Youth Day and Live for a Better South Africa.

I Thank You

Issued by: Department of Public Works
15 June 2006