Mandela-Rhodes Scholars' tackle ethical leadership

How do we practice ethical leadership? This is the question to be tackled at the 2nd annual conference of the Community of Mandela-Rhodes Scholars (CMRS), to be held in Grahamstown from the 6th to 9th September. 

Zackie Achmat, human rights activist who heads the Treatment Action Campaign, joins the impressive list of keynote speakers. The Nobel Peace Prize nominee will kick-start the conference with a Sunday evening address open to the public. 

To date, 93 post-graduate students have been selected for the coveted Mandela-Rhodes Scholarship programme since its inception in 2005. The continent-wide search for Scholars aims to enhance leadership potential in Africa and to create a platform of socially conscious young people who embody the principles of educational excellence, entrepreneurship, a spirit of reconciliation, and ethical leadership.

Rhodes University will play host to this four day conference and annual general meeting. It’s more than a talk-shop. Scholars will interact with the Grahamstown community and NGOs through projects such as Upstart, a newspaper run by previously disadvantaged high schools, and the Sakhuluntu Cultural Group, an informal community organisation that teaches children from disadvantaged areas skills in acting, singing and dancing.

Some of the speakers include head of the Colloquium on Social Entrepreneurship at the Gordon Institute for Business Science, Kojo Parris; Deputy Chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL), Julia Mabale; and CRL Commissioner, Mlawu Tyatyeka.

Parris says that this event is significant because “social entrepreneurship is becoming a major force for positive change through its focus on building social capital… and we want to engage the CMRS to ensure that they fully incorporate this as their leadership priorities”.

The Conference has been sponsored by Absa, and supported by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation together with the USA-based Friends of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, as well as Rhodes University. In addition, the CRL has partnered with the CMRS to ensure that 50 learners from Grahamstown schools can attend selected conference sessions. 

The CMRS is a registered non-profit organisation whose members support each other in their attempts to make a positive and meaningful impact on the African continent. The conference theme is part of a renewed inter-continental dialogue focusing on solutions. 

Conference coordinator Chris McConnachie said that “if one takes a rough sample of the problems facing Africa and the rest of the world, from inaction in addressing climate change to the global financial crisis, it is clear that ethical leadership is key to solving these problems”. He hopes that an exploration of ubuntu and social justice will create “a critical mass of ethical, effective leaders who will in time assist in correcting the deficit of principled leadership in Africa”.