Women’s Day Leadership | A Better Future for South Africa

In thinking about this, I draw on South African philosopher of education Yusef Waghid’s notion of rhythmic caring. It moves between stepping in and stepping back; offering judgement and withholding it; provoking people to think more deeply and creating space for a response. It refuses the false choice between high standards and human dignity.

Provocation as a leadership practice

One movement is provocation. Leaders should disturb complacency, expose untested assumptions, ask the questions others avoid, and insist that standards matter. Leadership doesn’t encourage the comfort zone but calls people towards capacities they may not yet recognise in themselves.

Accountability in leadership is an act of care

Accountability, properly practised, is an act of care. It says: your contribution matters; your choices have consequences; and I take your potential too seriously to leave poor work or conduct unchallenged.

A leader who repeatedly rescues, softens the truth, or lowers expectations may appear kind, but can deny people the opportunity to develop judgement, resilience, and competence.

On the spectrum of pursuing excellence and accountability, micromanaging errors makes people feel inadequate and they may learn to conceal, comply, and protect themselves. A safe environment is not one without tension, disagreement, or difficult feedback. It is one in which dignity remains secure while work, choices, and assumptions are rigorously challenged.

Belonging, and the confidence it builds

Belonging allows people to say, “I do not know”, to disagree, to test an unfinished idea, to acknowledge failure, and to try again. The leader listens before judging, withholds the answer long enough for others to think, and refuses to make uncertainty dangerous.

Genuine confidence grows when people are entrusted with meaningful responsibility, supported while exercising judgement, and able to discover that they can do what once seemed beyond them.

Leaders learn to dance between appropriate restraint without domination, challenge without being unreasonable, and supporting the development of new ideas without throttling them.

In education especially, we do not merely prepare people to perform roles or master technical knowledge. We help them form judgement skills to exercise authority and influence others constructively.

A leader or educator who supplies every answer may appear efficient while quietly creating dependence. The deeper task is to cultivate people who can think, deliberate, and act responsibly when we are no longer present.

There is also a wider question for South Africa and our continent: have we sufficiently considered what leadership should look like when thought from our histories, realities and philosophical traditions? Models developed elsewhere should not be transplanted without scrutiny. Nor should we replace one universal prescription with another. Africa is too diverse for a single template.

Ubuntu nevertheless offers a morally serious point of departure. It recognises that people are interdependent while capable of autonomous judgement. Ubuntu without accountability risks becoming sentiment; accountability without ubuntu can become punitive and dehumanising. Rhythmic caring holds the two together. Because our humanity is shared, we owe one another honest challenge and sustaining care.

In a society marked by inequality and fractured trust, yet sustained by deep interdependence, leadership cannot be value-neutral. Decisions should be questioned:

• Is it technically sound or financially defensible?
• Who will carry its consequences?
• Whose knowledge is absent?
• Who is granted a voice?
• Who is diminished?
• What kind of institution, and society, are we cultivating through the decisions we normalise?

Representation is non-negotiable. We need women wherever decisions are made. But placing women in an inherited chair without allowing room for change defeats the point. Any leadership position warrants competence, capacity, and wisdom for both men and women. Using dominance and control to prove a point and grasp the lead serves no one and should not be rewarded, either.

This Women’s Day, let’s recognise and create more opportunities for women to meaningfully contribute to the gaps in leadership in our society. We’ve always been capable, ready, and willing to help cultivate agency, courage, belonging, and create environments that support everyone’s success.