Humility, not titles, will define how leaders create sustainable value

Share current article via Email Share current article via Facebook Share current article via Twitter Share current article via LinkedIn Tomorrow's successful South African leaders who build a culture of growth, opportunity and job creation will ground their purpose in the lessons of our past while keeping their eyes on a tech-enabled and sustainable future, the writer says. Picture: Story audio is generated using AI We are at an inflection point. Leaders in business and government are confronting macroeconomic volatility, disrupted trade, emerging technology, ethical tests and accelerating climate risks. In South Africa these pressures are compounded by revelations from the Madlanga commission, high unemployment, poverty, xenophobia and poor governance at key state-owned entities — all damaging confidence and deterring investment. I do not share the despondency of many business leaders but am finding it increasingly difficult to detect the South African gees and the drive that have long characterised our resilience. That spirit cannot vanish if we are to make the sustainable changes our economy and country urgently need. But we cannot keep looking to others to make them, follow the loudest voice in the room or default to AI-led outcomes without question. Locally and abroad I've seen technology and artificial intelligence help leaders deliver sustainable change — but only when they complement wisdom and intuition, not replace them. There is a misconception that South Africa's economy is dominated by big business and that big business alone can drive the change we need. In reality the mid-tier market is where the true economy lives and where future growth and leaders will emerge. Private equity can shape that future provided we get trust, governance and supporting infrastructure right. The founders, investors, directors and executives in these companies therefore have the power and responsibility to shape our collective next steps. My work across the South African economy, and at organisations such as the V&A Waterfront and the University of Cape Town, has taught me that moments such as these — when the proverbial winter days are setting in around and within us — are when leaders in businesses large and small face their truest test. One lesson keeps ringing true. At 35 I became the CFO of the V&A Waterfront and later the first black CFO at the University of Cape Town (UCT), an institution that just a few years earlier I would not have been permitted to study at without express permission. As an entrepreneurial CFO among academic professional staff at UCT, I brought practical skills and a clear vision to leave the institution better than I found it. But, like most leaders in South Africa, I had to navigate complexity and had been in the role for just seven months when Fees Must Fall began. I am the son of a machinist and an administrator and could never have afforded to study at UCT. I was once excluded from such spaces because of the colour of my skin, so this was an incredibly testing chapter, personally and professionally. It taught me a profound lesson: leadership is not about titles or accolades, but humility. The humility to leave the regulated confines of an office, ask questions beyond the noise, return purpose to the centre and listen without judgement to people whose stories were not unlike my own. My job was to ensure the institution's sustainability so many more children like me could go to university. At the same time, I knew what it meant to come from a context where access to a hopeful future once felt impossible. So much has changed since I started as an articled clerk straight from high school on the Cape Flats. Yet what remains constant in our human experience can guide South Africa's future leaders, entrepreneurs, change-makers, politicians and executives through low growth, high unemployment and our often combative reality. Being a boytjie from the Cape Flats I've learnt that life has a funny way of revealing what is meant to be. Whether we work for a university, an NGO, a property developer, a renewables pioneer or a bank, leaders must recognise that building something designed to endure, not merely to last until the next sale, is what defines excellence. Our focus must be long-term value creation, not the next bonus cycle. A few years before Fees Must Fall, as CFO of the V&A Waterfront, it became clear that real value creation and true sustainability are possible only when the collective team works as one. It does not matter what the boardroom believes: only when security guards and cleaners understand and believe in what is being created are you truly creating value. Facilitating multibillion-dollar deals and sitting in boardrooms is not our purpose as human beings. Purpose should drive us; leadership is merely the conduit through which we find and live it. All too often leaders in business and government think the title is what makes us or gives our purpose meaning. In truth, it can break us. A title means nothing if we are not good human beings using our power to motivate, develop and build people. Tomorrow's successful South African leaders who build a culture of growth, opportunity and job creation will ground their purpose in the lessons of our past while keeping their eyes on a tech-enabled and sustainable future. It's the responsibility of today's leaders to ensure that they are able to follow the right examples.