The workshop with the theme “Toward more effective development in Africa: transformational leadership and enhanced accountability capacity for results” took place at the Centurion Lake Hotel.
 

Mr Ben van der Merwe, a staff member of the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership, gave a short presentation at the workshop on one of the ALCRL’s projects, entitled “Leadership for Africa”.

“The project is premised on the conviction that leadership can play a major role in realising Africa’s potential. The project will steer clear of pre-conceived, individualistic and western conceptualisations of what constitutes leadership in Africa. It will endeavour to identify the key enablers and disablers of leadership in its individual, collective and institutional dimensions for a truly sustainable Africa. This will be done as a collaborative effort between researchers across the continent in this project called ‘Leaders for Africa’. Its aim is to document the leadership resources that can enable Africa to realise its potential, as well as to understand the challenges that disables the realisation of this potential,” says Mr Van der Merwe.

The presentation also set the opportunity for an in-depth conversation on transformational leadership from an African perspective where four dimensions of transformational leadership were identified, namely ethical leadership, visionary leadership, accountable leadership and environmental support.

Representatives of about 15 African countries from different backgrounds and professional disciplines attended the workshop, where the characteristics of and the principles involved in transformational leadership in the specific context of the African continent, were discussed.

A brief conference report will be published and the hope remains to organise a follow-up meeting that will focus on the implementation of transformational leadership and accountability skills at country level.