introduCtion to deMoCratiC PrinCiPles

The most profoundly felt influences at Mqhekezweni were positive and enduring. h is ideas about leadership were crafted by ‘’observing the regent and his court’’ during the tribal meetings that were regularly held at the great Place. the regent would be surrounded by the amaphakathi, chiefs and headmen of high rank, who functioned as the regent’s parliament and judiciary.

‘’Everyone who wanted to speak did so. It was democracy in its purest form. People spoke without interruption... the foundation of self-government was that all men were free to voice their opinions and equal in their value as citizens... all men were to be heard and a decision... taken together as a people. Majority rule was a foreign notion. A minority was not to be crushed by a majority”.

however, he does acknowledge that women ‘’were deemed second-class citizens’’. ‘’ the meetings would continue until some kind of consensus was reached. they ended in unanimity or not at all. Unanimity, however, might be an agreement... to wait for a more propitious time to propose a solution’’.

‘’As a leader,’’ writes Nelson Mandela, ‘’I have always followed the principles I first saw demonstrated by the regent at the great Place. I have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion’’.

A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.

From a personal notebook, January 16,1994