Africa’s largest-ever gathering of leaders and experts from the continent, Leaderex, will be held in South Africa this year, between September 3 and 4 at the Sandton Convention Centre -- and everyone is invited.
For many South Africans, the notion of leadership has become somewhat anachronistic. As a politics-obsessed society, faith in those in positions of power is at an all-time low. Recent research by the South African Citizens Survey shows that the popularity of many politicians has dropped, along with trust in their parties; in service providers and in state institutions in general.
“Globally, the world lacks compassionate and ethical leaders,” said Chantyl Mulder, Senior Executive at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and a speaker at Leaderex. “This tone is set at the top -- and we all know a fish rots from it head,” she said.
This is part of the reason why hundreds of professionals and business leaders have lent their support, smarts and successes to Leaderex: to reinforce leadership outside of the political realm by sharing ideas in best practice and innovation; and engaging in meaningful discussions around how to tackle some of the country’s most pressing concerns head on.
For Mulder, the answer to growing disillusionment around issues of corruption and malpractice in leadership is servanthood.
“Servant leadership and sustainability [have] become essential if we are to see a positive change,” said Mulder. Leadership is all about ethics building [within] sustainable companies, embedding sustainable development goals into strategies and board discussions,” she said.
Mulder is one of hundreds of professionals representing corporate South Africa, along with civil servants in the NGO and advocacy sectors, creative leaders, journalists and thought leaders who will all be driving conversations and peer-to-peer learning around nation building, social innovation, AI and technology, but most importantly, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, ethics in business and investing.
“Leaderex is one of if not the largest gatherings in Gauteng,” said the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSEs) Mpho Ledwaba. “It brings together a broad range of delegates, ranging from experienced to novice investors. The common glue that brings these people together is the desire to learn and become better as leaders and aspiring leaders in this country,” he explained.
The JSE has sponsored Leaderex for four years running, with the intention of providing a platform for the country’s largest expo on leadership in order to help drive meaningful conversations around savings and investment.
“For the JSE, it’s crucial that we contribute to creating a financially literate population,” said Ledwaba. “Our aim is to help South Africans to increase a culture of saving and investing,” he said. “We would like to provide knowledge and information to business owners on how they can grow their businesses by listing on the JSE, as well as knowledge and guidance to the public on how to start investing on the JSE,” he said.
A new generation of leaders
For Mulder, who’s passion lies in the training and professional development of young South Africans, education is and should be the top priority across sectors when it comes to developing leaders of the future.
“Poverty, inequality and joblessness are the major preoccupations of many young people in South Africa,” said Mulder.
We need to work together to fix our education system at all levels – from early childhood development to secondary and tertiary training -- with particular focus on occupations in high demand, be they delivered by universities or TVET Colleges,” she said. “We need to improve the quality of education we are providing to our youngsters and capacitate our schools and lecturers with the best teaching staff.
“We have pockets of excellence, but too little to serve our youngsters properly,” she said. “How can we as a country be speaking about the skills sets required for the 21st century, when 90% of our schools do not have computers or internet access? How can we build new companies when our youngsters do not even have basic skills?”
Mulder cites the manufacturing sector as a prime example.
“Companies within manufacturing set aside money to support supplier development, but there are few to no skills in this sector to help start new companies,” said Mulder. “Established companies are having to expend resources on developing the necessary skills first, before they can even develop new supply chains” -- a costly and time-consuming state of affairs for the sector.
“Education, education and quality education, that will lead to decent work, is the solution,” she said.
For Ledwaba, education and literacy around their personal and business finances is also crucial to helping South Africans make better decisions during tough economic times.
“South Africa is known to be a nation of people who tend to overspend rather than save or invest,” said Ledwaba. “Collectively, our debt levels are very high. To curb this, it is important that we educate ourselves and our children about the importance of saving and investing. In this way we will be building generational wealth for our nation.”
The important lessons here are financial literacy, confidence and understanding how the whole financial system works.
“Our aim at Leaderex is to provide enough information to kindle the need to know more about investing, as well as to go and seek more information and advice from the professionals in the industry,” he said.
Many professionals will be available for one-on-one discussions at the expo, in addition to the myriad talks, workshops and peer-to-peer learning sessions on offer. Hundreds of businesses and organisations will also have booths at Leaderex to provide guidance and additional information about their fields of expertise.
This one-of-a-kind event is happening on 3-4 September at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. To obtain your free ticket, register online at www.leaderex.com before 30 August, using DailyMaverick as the invite code.