Today Google is providing me with answers relating to what Mathatha Tsedu said. I am not sure if I should just compile quotable quotes of what he said – even though I am yet to read the full speech.

Anyway from the news articles, Tsedu says the attributes that have been left by King Moshoeshoe as legacy of leadership include understanding that leadership:

is about concern for others and for self. It is about compassion in leadership and in society, it is about caring beyond [our] own concerns. It is about being involved and engaged.

By involved and engaged, he meant beyond mouthing socialist slogans. As he put it:

The poorest of the poor and our affection for them extends only to public meetings where we mouth socialist slogans. But in reality we want nothing to do with them and they have to fend for themselves.

In order to heed Tsedu’s advice, leadership and the general public as a whole needs to show true involvement and engagement in order to move away from poverty and live prosperous lives. As he says:

we as citizens have to say this is not the country we want to live in. For as long as we don’t say that, corruption will continue.

I certainly agree with him! We as citizens need to flex our democratic muscles. We also need to show compassion for each other and engage with some of the problems facing our own brothers and sisters. I therefore pledge to do my best to help make this world a better place. (At the moment, however, all I can do is help one person at a time…but I guess that is a good start 😉 .)