JOEL NETSHITENZHE: Valedictory address, as published in the Sunday Times:

With each farewell function that I have attended in the past month, the words of encouragement become more profound, more heartfelt and more touching.

Thus one starts fully to appreciate the bonds of friendship and collegiality forged over the past 15 years in the trenches to build a better life for all.

And one starts to appreciate who you are in the eyes of those whose lives you’ve touched and who have impacted on your own.

The pain of leaving a family – the Presidency and the broader government – is made easier by these farewell functions. Like funeral wakes, they are a necessary catharsis as one traverses the line between certainty and uncertainty.

Two coincidences in the period when we were finalising the decision on my future made me wonder about the profound meaning of the notion of fate.

Some two weeks before the announcement, I hurt my shoulder while exercising and the doctor advised that I should put on a sling.

In the same period, I had to attend a number of functions, including the 50th anniversary of the African Communist, with personalities such as Blade Nzimande and Zwelinzima Vavi.

So I defied the doctor’s orders because I would have literally looked like a representative of the “walking wounded”.

In the week that the announcement was made, the SA Football Association parted ways with Joel Santana and I was waiting for a Sunday Times Hogarth headline “Another Joel bites the dust”!

But, as with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and as with Bafana Bafana, I’m convinced that something good will come out of this, for me, for the government, for the nation and for my family.

Perhaps the profound significance of this is illustrated by the simple words of the youngest one at home. When I told him I would be leaving work, his response was not about where the school fees would come from, but: “So it means you are going to fetch me from school!”

Few individuals have had the privilege to work this closely with the ultimate leadership of the nation:

From the early days with Mandela, when he complained that there was no smell of coffee in the corridors of the Union Buildings and we had to construct the president’s office virtually from scratch. We learnt then what it means to manage a transition and unite a nation;
And the cerebral pursuits of the Mbeki era, combined with forging an integrated democratic state;
To the firm but modest hand of Motlanthe in managing an uncertain transition; and
Now, the Zuma era, which holds the promise of merging some of the defining attributes of the two main phases of the first 15 years of democracy and taking us to a higher trajectory.
If, from time to time, some of us are mistaken for giants, it is because we stand on the shoulders of and glow in the halo of the genuine articles.

Many kind words have been said about the role that one has played in the evolution of the democratic state. What needs emphasis though is the role of the collective: the policy unit, Forum of SA Directors-General and cabinet.

If one contributed to the communication function under a democratic government, it is because the leadership encouraged and guided us.

If one contributed to the integration of government work, scenario planning and the various elements of policy, it is because the leadership gave us space and encouraged critical thought.

If one contributed to a smooth political transition during September 2008 and after the 2009 elections, it is because the leadership lent us their ear and supervised us.

I should take this opportunity to acknowledge the leadership of ministers Trevor Manuel and Collins Chabane.

Having known Trevor since 1989, when we met in Paris, and Collins since 1990, when I was chairman and he was secretary of the then Northern Transvaal region of the ANC, I should say it’s regrettable that we couldn’t continue that acquaintance in the context of the new functions of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation.

This work will be difficult but not impossible.

In the words of Geoff Mulgan, head of the policy and strategy unit in then British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office, “It is widely assumed that governments have lost power … [T]he perception of powerlessness is an illusion … Governments overestimate their power to achieve change in the short term and underestimate it in the long term.”

If I were to add my tuppence worth, I would advise that for the Presidency to be able to exercise leadership in the context of changes being introduced, it:

Carefully wield the soft and hard power it has: winning the allegiance of departments, other spheres and society at large;
Master the science and art of ensuring all centres of government embrace the Presidency’s initiatives as their own;
Ensure both dignified articulation of generic issues and a dignified silence when necessary; and
Perhaps most importantly, organise the best parties ever at the end of the year so colleagues can know each other better.
A song I heard recently by Chris de Burgh seems to resonate with challenges one faces as one moves out into the wider world; and part of the lyrics (roughly transcribed) are worth repeating:

Black bird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to be free

-ends-

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