BY SIFISO NHLABATSI
EZULWINI – Senator Tony Sibandze has challenged Professor Delanyo Adadevoh to help leaders understand how they can put the interests of the people before their own, drawing on the leadership principle that good leaders eat last.
Sibandze raised the challenge during the Kingdom Leadership and National Transformation Seminar in Ezulwini, where leaders engaged Professor Adadevoh on leadership, integrity and the transformation of Eswatini.
The seminar brought together Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, Principal Secretaries, senior government officials and Parliament staff, alongside religious and business leaders and members of Campus Crusade for Christ. The gathering formed part of the Kingdom Leadership and National Transformation initiative aimed at engaging leaders on leadership, integrity and national development.
Sibandze’s intervention centred on the responsibility of leaders to place the interests of citizens ahead of personal benefit. Referring to the leadership principle popularised by Simon Sinek, “good leaders eat last”, he challenged the engagement to consider how leaders could cultivate a culture of selflessness and put the people they serve first.
Hhohho Regional Woman MP Tanele Zanele Magagula stressed the importance of having people of integrity in positions of leadership.
Magagula said Eswatini could make meaningful progress if people entrusted with responsibility upheld strong ethical values. She also raised questions about whether some of the country’s challenges could be linked to the wrong people occupying leadership positions.
She challenged the seminar to consider how leaders could better interrogate and understand the aspirations of citizens and ensure that those entrusted with responsibility genuinely reflected those aspirations.
Meanwhile Minister of Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi echoed the Prime Minister’s call for disruption, urging leaders to stop complaining about bureaucracy and inefficiencies and instead change how government operates.
Buthelezi said leaders needed to be prepared to disrupt systems and approaches that were not delivering the desired results for the country.
The Prime Minister on the other hand challenged Emaswati to move beyond aspirations and have the courage, imagination and discipline required to build the country Eswatini is capable of becoming.
He said Africa possesses vast resources, including land, minerals, energy, human capital and markets, but Africans must take greater responsibility for developing these resources rather than leaving others to exploit them.
The Prime Minister also challenged what he described as a culture of negativity among Emaswati, saying people often value foreign products, ideas and achievements more highly than local ones, even when local offerings can match or surpass them.
He called for a change in mindset, urging Emaswati to believe in themselves, support local excellence and speak positively about the country and its people.
The different contributions during the seminar centred on a common call for leadership that prioritises integrity, service and national development, with participants engaging Professor Adadevoh on how these principles could be translated into action in Eswatini.
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