Jay Naidoo pt 2: Servant Leadership and the fight for South Africa’s democratic future

Key topics:

• SA democracy falters without economic redress

• Dialogue risks failure without real action

• Servant leadership needed to rebuild trust

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By Jay Naidoo

Part II – South Africa at the Crossroads: Dialogue or Betrayal

Thirty years after that promise, the miracle of South Africa’s birth stands at risk. The constitutional democracy that emerged from our long night of colonisation and apartheid was an astonishing achievement: an imperfect peace, yet peace nonetheless. After 350 years of brutal dispossession we sat around the table, found common ground and built a state founded on one person, one vote in a non-racial democracy. The 1994 settlement fulfilled the central objective of the Mandela generation.

But the very success of that moment has bred complacency. We have failed to nurture the servant leadership that once held up the light of human unity and social justice. The threat we face is no longer only from old enemies of democracy. It comes from within—our own inability to live the covenant we signed.

Reconciliation Without Redress

We cannot pretend any longer. Political transformation may have deracialised the vote, but it did not dismantle an economy designed for exclusion. Millions of Black South Africans remain landless, many still trapped in shacks and joblessness. Reconciliation without economic redress was always a fragile bridge. Today the ugly heads of racism and tribalism rise again, weaponised by politicians who exploit division for survival, not against apartheid’s architects, but against their own people.

Leaders inherited a broken system, yes, but they also squandered the chance to rebuild it. They chose patronage over principle, luxury over service, power over people. Inequality has deepened, trust has evaporated, and democracy feels hollow.

The Danger of Hollow Dialogue

In this moment of crisis, we are told the answer is “national dialogue.” The National Dialogue Convention of 2025 promises over a thousand delegates and a citizen-driven process. On paper it looks like hope. But South Africans are weary of conferences where elites gather in luxury hotels, make speeches and cut ribbons while the hungry watch from outside. Dialogue without action is betrayal.

Real dialogue does not happen on a stage. It happens when leaders arrive without blue-light convoys or entourages of security; when they sit on the ground, listen before they speak and allow ordinary people to set the agenda. Dialogue is not about image management; it is about power, who has it, and who must surrender it.

Nelson Mandela captured this in his vision of servant leadership:

“A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, not realizing all along that they are being directed from behind.”

That is the leadership South Africa needs again, not politicians obsessed with tenders and mansions, but leaders who understand that their power comes only from the people.

Turning the Lens on Ourselves

If dialogue is to be more than theatre, we must examine not only the failures of government and political parties, though they are many, but also our own. Citizens, civic leaders, the media, public institutions: all of us have a share in the erosion of trust. Acknowledging our failures is often half the solution. Too many leaders have stayed in power too long; imagination has atrophied. The technological revolution has left them behind. And my own generation, including myself, has run out of ideas, still clinging to politics and ideologies that no longer meet the needs of a crumbling world.

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Who Must Speak, Who Must Listen

The first question is clear: who must speak, and who must listen?

The youth, over sixty percent of our population, face unemployment rates above fifty percent; their disillusionment is a warning siren. Women bear the heaviest burdens of poverty and violence and remain too often silenced in leadership. Workers and the unemployed who built this democracy through sacrifice must help shape the future economy. Traditional and Indigenous leaders hold ecological wisdom no constitution can replace. Faith and cultural leaders can provide moral strength, if they stand for justice, not mere charity.

Government, which has squandered legitimacy through corruption and arrogance, must listen. Business must confront the reality that obscene inequality threatens stability for all. Civil society and the media must move beyond outrage and amplify solutions from the ground. And elders like myself must stop hoarding authority and mentor youth with humility.

Qualities of True Dialogue

For dialogue to matter, three qualities are essential. Honesty: no more denial, manipulation or hiding behind apartheid to excuse today’s failures. Courage: the willingness to stay in the conversation even when truths cut deep. Imagination: the creativity to envision new economic and ecological models that heal rather than exploit.

The Convention’s promise to use storytelling, healing circles and community gatherings is a step forward. But symbolism is not enough. If this dialogue does not deliver concrete change, it will only deepen the cynicism of a generation already feeling betrayed.

Beyond Words: Building Structures

Dialogue must be the beginning, not the end. Out of this process must come People’s Assemblies, citizen audits and community forums, structures rooted in the daily lives of people, not in the photo opportunities of politicians. These must be sustained, institutionalised and given power to hold leaders accountable between elections. Without this, dialogue remains theatre while the country burns.

Africa’s Larger Moment

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns that humanity now faces “the most dangerously divided and polarised period since the Second World War.” Imperial power is returning in a fascist tide of darkness. Yet a collapsing world allows Africa to pierce the veil of past domination. This can be our century if we stop being fifty-four fiefdoms and speak with one voice; if we shed the psychology of colonial dependency and choose a path of spiritual awakening, respect for nature and recognition that peace and human unity are paramount.

To seize that future we must awaken to who we are, why we are here, and where we want to go. Servant leadership must be reborn, not as nostalgia but as a living practice: leadership that serves rather than rules, that listens before it speaks, that places the common good above personal gain.

South Africa has faced crisis before. We could have descended into civil war in the early 1990s. Instead we chose dialogue. But this time the stakes are higher. Our people are angrier, more desperate, more betrayed. If leaders cannot listen now, really listen, they will forfeit their right to lead. The anger of the abandoned majority will not be contained by speeches or police.

But if we succeed, South Africa can again show the world that dialogue is not weakness but strength. That reconciliation is not forgetting, but redress. That democracy is not just voting, but power in the hands of the people. Whether the 2025 National Dialogue becomes a turning point or another act of betrayal will depend on our courage to speak and their humility to hear.

History is watching. And the people are watching even closer.