Arts and culture: will the real leaders please raise their hands?

Written by Sandile Memela
Tuesday, 05 July 2011 13:02

There has not been a time in the history of this country when the number of leadership positions, especially for the previously disadvantaged, was so great, yet the quality of leadership leaves much to be desired. I guess what needs to be made very clear from the start is that leadership is not just about positions.

Simply put, it is not about token management positions, drawing up cut-and-dried strategic plans and overseeing the structural process of achieving whatever goals or objectives have been set by other people.

I believe a leader has to be someone who not only points the way forward or gives direction but is an inspiring character whose words or behaviour galvanises or moves people to form groups or teams that will work towards the achievement of a particular goal.
In most instances, we find that too many people who hold top management positions are mistaken for leaders. With the rise of majority rule in the last 17 years, one would expect blacks, if you like, to assert their power and influence in leadership. There is no doubt that the ruling party, the African National Congress, has long unveiled a clear manifesto on the way forward.

That manifesto is to create jobs, fight unemployment and crime and make inroads into a meaningful stake in the economy through BBBEE. That is very clear visionary leadership. Now, how do we explain the absence of leaders outside the ministerial office? These would for instance be people who make their presence felt as they work towards transforming the artistic and cultural landscape in such a way that it will not only project an unmistakably African national profile but provide economically empowering opportunities for the majority.

The developments of the last 17 years reveal that we do not yet have the calibre of leaders in the arts and culture sector who are serious about radical change in the system or in the way things are done.

At the risk of sounding like a praise singer, I’d like to point out that the current minister of arts and culture, Paul Mashatile, has acutely defined the objectives he wants to be pursued and achieved during his tenure. Much as nation-building, social cohesion and the preservation and protection of what is South African culture and heritage are important matters of strategic focus, Mashatile wants economic empowerment, job creation and skills development to be treated as top priorities by the sector.
He defined the way forward, and it is now up to so-called leaders to take up the challenge of implementation. Leaders are people who use their powerful positions to make things happen. The lack of leaders who implement government’s agenda for social transformation and economic empowerment can be linked to the emergence of middle-class lifestyles amongst people who are in top positions.

Over the last 21 years since the release of Nelson Mandela there has been a transmogrification of the character content, material aspirations and social orientation of people who should be providing leadership in the arts. Of course, showbiz, as the arts and culture sector is called, has always produced “superstars” that have not only gone to become self-appointed cultural spokespeople but were mistaken for leaders.

But these prominent personalities are a good example of bad leadership in the arts and culture sector. Where is the African cultural profile of the most successful democracy in the world? Instead, the soul of this nation is a weak imitation of Coca-Cola culture. Thus the dominant cultural forces in music, fashion, dance, theatre, movies, languages and other art forms are either non-African or foreign.

Much as this is to be expected in an over-Americanised or globalised world, indigenous artistic and cultural leadership would have this country make giant strides to assert its leadership quality because of its world class talent. If we had genuine South African leadership, the national profile of this country would be diverse but with an unmistakable African edge.

For us to talk of leadership in the arts there must be a visible leap in social transformation and economic empowerment that will not only reveal the African face of this nation but also give way to qualitative change in the lives of ordinary men, women and children in the sector.

There must be a difference in ownership, content control and economic empowerment where people in the arts and culture sector own the products of their output and thus enjoy a better quality of life.

Unfortunately, the leaders in the sector – if there are such people – are not only complacent in their management positions but have become easily satisfied to serve as managers who protect and preserve the untransformed status quo.

They are happy with their own middle-class lifestyles. For the most part, the smug middle-class orientation of “superstars” and self-satisfied managers in the arts and culture sector discourages the achievement of the goals and objectives that have been set by government.

A minister is a political figurehead that spells out the strategic direction of the country and leaves it to policy implementers to do what is expected. Yet much of what we see today is conformity with an untransformed artistic and cultural landscape that makes it nigh impossible to empower ordinary folks.

The leadership in the arts and culture sector has come of age and is mandated with the responsibility to take us to the next level of cultural and artistic boom. It cannot be business as usual.

Will the real leaders please raise their hands?