Mbeki on objective reality and leadership

[Dave A]

Outgoing South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni was among several world finance experts who did not provide adequate leadership to prevent the global finance crisis, former president Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.

Mbeki was speaking on the "effective exercise of leadership" and the future role of the youth at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

"The effective exercise of leadership must, in part, be based on as thorough an understanding as possible of objective reality," he said.
full story from M&G here

I really hate to knock a guy when he's down, but isn't this the same Thabo Mbeki who led the country's AIDS response on the basis that HIV does not cause AIDS?

[wynn]

He is obviously repeating something that was said to him.

[Chatmaster]

Do people actually listen to him?

[Dave A]

Jacob Zuma has made the comeback of all time. And some of his sensitivity to issues probably comes from his own experience of being on the receiving end of some harsh treatment.

I'd think Thabo Mbeki is probably more worthy of being listened to now than ever before. He might not be a political powerhouse anymore (or just at the moment), but he's bound to have had some serious personal growth through the process.

[Chatmaster]

IMO, The problem with Mbeki is that he has a a low task high personnel management style. In terms of leadership and management he is not exactly the best candidate to use as an example of leadership and management and the last person to deliver such a speech at a university. Throughout his career he has proven to be more focussed on the needs of the people around him than focussing on getting the job done. He protected many failures and still prevented the job from being done by keeping those failures in place. He is a good listener, but lacks the leadership skills to step up the plate.