The media is replete with reports of leadership crises. On the contrary, South Africa does not have a leadership crisis. It has a humanity crisis in leadership. This is not a dramatic claim. It is a lived reality.
by: Nqobile Pamela Xaba
At its core, this is a crisis of dignity. A crisis of Ubuntu. We have not forgotten how to lead, but we have forgotten how to be with people.
As Professor Phinda Mzwakhe Madi reflects in the foreword to The People Circle, as a nation, we have become adept at designing systems that perform, while neglecting the humanity those systems are meant to serve.
The Moment That Reveals the Truth
A senior executive paused mid-sentence and said: “I’m doing everything right… but something still feels wrong.” Around the room, there was a quiet recognition. On paper, everything was working. Targets were being met. Governance structures were intact. And yet, beneath that success, there was an absence that no metric could quite explain.
That absence has a name: a humanity crisis in leadership. We are not lacking direction but are losing connection.
When Performance Replaces Presence
Leadership has become increasingly defined by output, speed, and control — a contract many leaders inherit without consciously signing. In this contract, humanity becomes secondary, often invisible.
There is a quiet but insistent demand that employees meet targets while navigating grief, financial strain, and social uncertainty. Conversations that require courage are replaced by those that preserve image.
The result is not resilience. It is quiet exhaustion. Over time, that exhaustion becomes disengagement. Disengagement becomes attrition.
The Leadership We Reward — and the Leadership We Need
We continue to reward leaders who appear certain, composed, and in control. But our context demands something fundamentally different — leaders who can hold tension without rushing to resolution, who can listen before they respond.
“Who you are becoming will always speak louder than what you are performing.”
The Dignity Deficit
One of the most under-acknowledged challenges in South African workplaces today is not a lack of talent. It is a lack of dignity. Dignity is not abstract — it is experienced in whether people feel safe to speak, whether their contributions are recognised, whether decisions consider their human impact.
When dignity is absent, people do not immediately leave. They withdraw. They comply instead of contributing. They perform instead of engaging.
Ubuntu: Not Philosophy, but Method
“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” — a person is a person through other people. This is not a soft idea. It is a structural one. It challenges leadership models built on hierarchy and individualism and replaces them with an ethic of relational accountability.
Ubuntu does not weaken leadership; it deepens it by rooting authority in relationship, dignity, and shared humanity.
A Necessary Evolution
The question is no longer whether organisations can afford to centre humanity in leadership — it is whether they can afford not to. Without trust, strategy fails. Without dignity, performance declines. Without humanity, leadership loses its legitimacy.
South Africa does not need louder leaders. It needs more present ones.
Nqobile Pamela Xaba is a Human Capital Entrepreneur, Professional Business Coach, Leadership Consultant, and author of the forthcoming book The People Circle: A Human-Centred Approach to Leadership in a Complex World. She is Founder of Nonkosi Coaching & Leadership and Chairperson of Inspired Growth NPC.
