Ethical leadership is much more than just confronting corruption

-to accumulate wealth instead of helping others.

Whenever Africa celebrates a significant event, such as the birth of Nelson Mandela Africa should set socio-economic goals for  the continent’s development.

African leaders who want more from society  let them make the principles that underpinned the life of Mandela way of life, a set of ethics that will unite Africans to do the right thing all the time.    

Africa needs to not make a stand over what are a set of ethics that would be embraced and advanced by all Africans. It is fair to say that each language or colour in Africa group has continued on its own way, following its version of what is ethical, without giving a thought to a common set of ethics for all.

It is time to stop this ingrained way of following different ethics for different groups. We need to make every day a Mandela Day, as well as turn each day into one that is free of violence against women, children, the elderly and men. We need to change not only for the sake of our children but for our own sake as well.

The African continent demands this of us: to choose an exemplary living, caring for others and to turn our back on a lifestyle that glitters with the rewards that a life of no ethics brings.

Africa should choose the way of Mandela, Tambo and the men and women who gave their all   struggle for freedom. This should not be too difficult because each of the world’s major religions and many people’s groups follows its own version of the Golden Rule that says, “do unto others”.

In South Africa they have the concept of Ubuntu: a person is a person through other people. Accepting a life filled with common South African ethics is a choice all  Africans have to make and follow. It’s not a choice that the governments can make for Africa: it’s a personal one that if welcomed into our midst by the majority will change our African governments. In the ANC this approach is encapsulated in the document called Through the Eye of a Needle which states that: “As a movement for fundamental change, the ANC regularly has to elect leaders at various levels who are equal to the challenge of each phase of struggle.  

In South Africa to become an ANC leader is not an entitlement. It is not be an easy process attached merely to status. It  is informed first and foremost by the desire and commitment to serve the people, and a track record appreciated by ANC members and communities alike.  Those in leadership positions unite and guide the movement to be at the head of the process of change. They   lead the movement in its mission to organise and inspire the masses to be their own liberators.

Africa should lead the task of governance with diligence. And, together, Africa should reflect continuity of a revolutionary tradition and renewal which sustains the development in the long term Africa have not always been faithful to these dictates. Evidence delivered at the Zondo Commission into State Capture might have been riveting, salacious, disgusting to some. But to many of African governments   are distressing and a necessary process that shows how much African governments have wandered from the principles enunciated in Through the Eye of a Needle.