Nelson Mandela

Why leadership in the world matters

The mark of a great leader is being prepared to tell your people what they don't want to hear.

It's being ready to stand up for what you believe is right, even when this entails overruling cautious advisers, or ignoring discouraging opinion polls.

A great leader knows that vindication may not come immediately, that received wisdom can move slowly (sometimes too slowly, in a democracy, to secure re-election).

But in the long run, we can see who stands on the right side of history, and who does not.

Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, each former South African presidents, fit into the former category. 

Both men have flawed records, (yes, even Mandela) but at a crucial time they had the courage and wisdom to steer South Africa away from the abyss.

They dismayed hardliner supporters with their willingness, firstly, to talk to the other side, and secondly, to then make painful compromises. 

The Forgotten Force

A few months before Nelson Mandela's release, we undertook a fascinating news exercise.

We commissioned an artist to paint a portrait of what he might look like based on images that were current before his imprisonment, and also using eyewitness descriptions from the very few who had seen him in prison (notably his then wife Winnie and an opposition member in the whites only parliament, Helen Suzman).

We then took the image into Soweto and asked passers-by whether they recognised this man. Nobody did.

Twenty years after Nelson Mandela's release, it seems unthinkable that at one stage few knew what he looked like.

Draconian regime

This fact is a very strong illustration of how powerful and draconian the apartheid regime really was.

The African National Congress and a number of other organisations were banned in 1960.