The era of a new leadership is now

We often see the rise of self proclaimed leaders in our societies. Social networking sites has arrived with many possibilities. What is interesting is how collaborating in groups, people enable to access control over them. Most people never question, because it is easier not to question and opposition therefore fade away.

There were many responses to this issue, so I thought it would be interesting to unfold this topic a little more and share our experience, opinions and ideas here.

Those however with the ability to work with resources, assigning resources to task, establishing costs and adjust accurate planning are simply played off. Experienced project engineers and project managers see through this easily, when management practices and methodologies arise.


 To get a better understanding of this "leaders" can be very hard, since they mostly operate under the radar and with hardly any tracking record if at all. Discussions of various kinds are mostly vague and involved all kinds of shady people. Most of these shady characters have hidden agendas based on self enrichment. Some have become overnight traditional leaders due to their unemployment or laziness to seek for a credible decent job. It has become easier to go into politics, where no previous experience is required.


Manipulating the uneducated masses becomes their tasks. 


They usually use the sentiment of past sufferings under previous governments and circumstances that have kept people in weak financial and social circumstances. In other words, the people at risk are the one's who never had a life but simply exists on a daily basis through survival and under the poverty conditions. People living in poverty are easy to manipulate with selling them a dream for free. They are fond of cheap talk, because it is perhaps a distraction from their hunger pains or the shithole they living in.


Thanks to the opening of the Internet of whom the majority have little understanding.


Understanding APIs or Internet protocols is not relevant to them, rather to be in the spotlight. Unfortunately these "leaders" have no troubleshooting guide or guide to understand them better.

It is a pity that Facebook cater for "friends" only, maybe because Mark Z., can not distinguish among friends and acquaintances.


Some people of cheap material however do not care, whether they have meet someone in person, because now they can have easily 5 000 friends and exist inside the box and are to damn stupid to think outside the box. How boring life would be if all our views and opinions are the same?


What gives identity to a leader?

Is it how he identify his goals and objectives or is it how he/she coordinate different needs?


What I personally miss in these "leaders" are the simple indispensable leadership qualities, how they can be most effective, fairness, appreciation, commitment, inspire people, set examples, taken responsibility, showing initiation and the ability to show competence. A leader do not exclude you, he say things, plan things but most importantly do things.


Leaders have track records of building institutions and businesses.

Leaders are often misunderstood simply because some people don't understand priorities. As a leader you must take as often as possible self-assessment in terms of your strength and your personal area of weakness. If we do not address our personal shortcomings, we will simply steam role over the weak and uneducated poor masses. A low or uneducated person is a poor person.


Allow me to end with the quote of Dr. Maxwell “if you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others”.

Therefore leading without influence is like gathering water in a basket but with it you are limitless in your achievement.


There are several key points that I have left out on purpose, because I do not believe in spoon feeding. This of course is making me less passionate. Most people hate to think inside out or outside in. I trust this may serve as an eye opener and not as a public lecture.


The floor is now open for discussion. 

Thank you for your persistence and motivation to take time to read this.

Johan Hossayn van Wyk

South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says he will take steps against attempts to discredit him

South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday he would take legal action to protect himself from what he called attempts to discredit him and the integrity of the National Treasury. Gordhan's statement followed a newspaper report which quoted sources as saying he had threatened to resign from cabinet after receiving a letter from the elite Hawks police unit questioning his knowledge of a suspected rogue unit at the revenue service.

 South African Minister of Finance, Mr. Pravin Gordhan was born 1949-4-12 in Durban, South Africa.

Pravin Gordhan is the Minister of Finance. He was the previous Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. He is the former Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service as well as the former Chair of the World Customs Organisation.Pravin Gordhan has been appointed as the minister of finance, replacing David van Rooyen.

 (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by James Macharia)

African Union will send monitors to Burundi

The African Union will send 100 human rights monitors and 100 military monitors to Burundi, South Africa's president said on Saturday after a trip to the tiny nation that is facing its worst crisis since a civil war ended a decade ago.

Photo: Evrard Ngendakumana 

Jacob Zuma, delivering a statement by a delegation of African leaders that he led, did not say when the monitors would arrive in Burundi, where more than 400 people have been killed since April. Zuma left Burundi after his remarks.

Photo: Evrard Ngendakumana 

The violence has rattled a region with a history of ethnic conflict. Burundi's civil war, which ended in 2005, largely pitted two ethnic groups against each other. Neighboring Rwanda was torn apart by genocide in 1994.

Western powers have urged Africans to act. The United States and European nations have withheld some aid to poor Burundi and taken other steps to try to put pressure on the government to resolve the crisis, but they say it has had little impact.

"We believe strongly that the solution to Burundi's political problems can be attained only through inclusive and peaceful dialogue," Zuma said in the statement, which also expressed "concerns" about the level of violence and killings.

The decision to send monitors suggests a compromise had been reached with Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza, who triggered the crisis in April when he announced a bid for a third term. He went on to win a disputed election in July, in the face of street protests and violent clashes.

The new initiative falls far short of the African Union's plan announced in December to send a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force, which Nkurunziza's government rejected.Details about the new mission were not immediately clear. Diplomats said other African monitors sent to Bujumbura last year had been stuck in their hotel unable to work because Burundi refused to sign a memorandum allowing them to operate.

The special forces sticks-convoy awaited President Jacob Zuma, with safety of passage. 

OPPOSITION URGES MORE MONITORS

Burundi's opposition said 200 monitors were not enough."They have to increase the number so they can cover the large part of the (country's) territory," said Thacien Sibomana, spokesman for the opposition UPRONA party. "They unfortunately remained silent on the peacekeepers deployment while people are continuously dying."

Burundi's government has previously said it was ready for dialogue, but opponents say it has set preconditions on who would attend and what could be discussed that made such discussions pointless.

Talks sponsored by nearby Uganda in December had been planned to continue in Tanzania in January. But the initiative stumbled at the start of the year when the government said it would not attend as some participants had been behind violence.For their part, opponents accuse government forces of targeting and killing members of the opposition.

The statement by African leaders said Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni would convene dialogue with "all important stakeholders as soon as possible". It did not say when.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Gareth Jones)