Honour? SA, led by Jacob “Nkandla” Zuma, must have lost it when we mislaid our collective moral compass

The study is my favourite room. Mostly because it houses books accumulated over decades. Old friends and new. Treasure chests of knowledge with the power to change lives. Mine included.

We learn much from reading. But not everything. Some things you need to actually do. Especially in the field of Leadership. Books, especially biographies, offer suggestions, ideas, examples. But experience has always been a more skilful teacher.

There was a powerful reminder last night when Jeanette and I were dinner guests of the Curlews Patrol at a Scouts Leadership camp. We enjoyed a three course meal with mid-teen boys who were disciplined, respectful and engaging. Very much like Scouts have always been.

A few months back I was invited to join the new board of Scouts South Africa. As a lad, the movement changed my life, very much for the better. So it's been a privilege to get involved again.

Going to Gilwell brought back my own experiences at a Scouts Leadership Camp decades back. Memories of camping, hiking, open fire cooking, sleeping bags, PT, learning how to look after yourself and being pushed to my physical limit. Also the less tangible aspects drilled into us like discipline, teamwork, fair play and honour.

Especially honour. Something you don't bump into every day in our beloved country. Honour. The concept of respect. Or knowing and doing what is morally right. Avoiding the softer, easier way.

There's much we can teach the British. But somehow their leaders have managed to retain their honour. Something Madibaland had in chunks. But lost when our collective moral compass got mislaid.

When they blow it, the Poms resign. Sex scandal – gone. No long-running shower-head cartoons. Ditto when there's a muck up in delivery; economic policies; selection of service providers. Or a company that blows shareholders' funds on an incorrect strategy.

But we South Africans are becoming a nation that has devalued, even forgotten honour. The norm is to shift accountability. A land where brazening-it-out or confusing the truth by spinning reality trumps doing what is morally right.

Were honour more important, someone would long ago have taken responsibility for the fake sign language interpreter. For the appalling firing of Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois. The e-Toll mess. The MTN Zakhele trading disaster. The continuing mess at Joburg Metro. Or a dozen other examples that spring to mind.

Scouts are not perfect. Nothing is. But 32 million young people around the world – and over 300 000 in South Africa – are exposed every day to a code that puts honour at its core. That has to be a good thing.

Pity we can't make attendance compulsory. Especially for prospective politicians.

In Parliament yesterday, Democratic Alliance member HB Groenewald tabled questions the whole country wants answered. He officially requested President Jacob Zuma to detail the running and capital costs of his property in Nkandla; how much has been spent; who pays for it now and in future.

The Presidency's written reply says it all: "The Presidency is not responsible for running the President's property in Nkandla and is thus not privy to the related costs. The Department of Public Works is responsible for maintaining the structures that government has erected on the property."

Not privy? Does Zuma think this is a nation where you require a frontal lobotomy before being allowed to vote?

Obviously not. He is acting rationally. Employing tactics that have worked for him so far in our Drifting land. A nation where honour seems to have been cast aside. Shift the blame. Brazen it out. People will forget. This too shall pass. He who swims last, swims happiest. Yuck. – AH