Noah Mangwarara.
Zimbabwe requires a new generation of leaders; not those who come from the womb and wait for their time because they are of age but men and women thoroughly groomed and developed to assume the leadership positions. It is in this area that we have serious challenges politically, from a business standpoint and even in spiritual circles. This is the case considering that we still have factions devoid of strategic capacity to carry the nation and institutions forward. The factions are not limited to politics, they are awash in almost every leadership arena wherein there exist people lacking the capacity to comprehend the demands of the institutions they purport to lead; they would rather spend greater part of productive time fighting each other to the very demise of their organisations. The type of leaders we have are the ones relying primarily on what happened in the years gone by; especially their exploits in the bush war on the part of the politicians. Such a mindset will never carry the nation forward. The fall of Zimbabwe’s tyrannical leader Robert Mugabe is no guarantee that the nation will enter into a positive and progressive trajectory.
In light of the recent political developments, the logical way forward is to look at leadership development coupled with the exposure of such leaders to the demands of the 21st century. Continuously making reference to the happenings of the 20th century is taking us to the Stone Age era. The space age that we are sailing in requires men and women with the capacity of making decisions on the go. These are the type of leaders who can distinguish their right hand from the left. It is such individuals who sacrifice self for purposes of the greater good of many.
By reshuffling the old guard, the real leadership potential is thwarted and stifled to a point of absolute frustration. The potential of the country is limited in the process; this leads to another generation that will be lost waiting for all the liberation heroes coupled with the pretenders thereto to have their turn to rule. If ever we habour the prospects of a better and brighter future, a new leadership dispensation is no longer a thing to be thought about but something to be acted upon. Infact, this was supposed to have been implemented yesteryear. As long as we celebrate the coming of one leader following the sacking of another, it might not be long before we are repeating the developments of the last few weeks; at least a precedent has been set albeit in the wrong direction.
A leader worth his salt immediately realizes the urgency of the matter and institutes action towards bringing the youngsters of sound character and integrity closer to the steering wheel of power. In as much as that could have been the scope of the G40 cabal and their machinations, the motive behind was not in the interest of the country but for personal gain.
I feel and am strongly persuaded that true leadership success comes about when one generation takes it upon its shoulders to develop and expose the next generation of leaders. A leader who fails to groom a successor is an absolute failure regardless of the sphere of influence that the leader plies.
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