Nigeria, May 20 -- The media is replete with reports of leadership crises. On the contrary, South Africa does not have a leadership crisis. It has a humanity crisis in leadership. This is not a dramatic claim. It is a lived reality, visible in the silence before truth is spoken, in the quiet withdrawal of capable people, and in the widening gap between organisational performance and human experience.

At its core, this is a crisis of dignity. A crisis of Ubuntu. We have not forgotten how to lead, but we have forgotten how to be with people.

As Professor Phinda Mzwakhe Madi reflects in the foreword to The People Circle, as a nation we have become adept at designing systems that perform, while neglecting the humanity those systems are mean...