06 Jun 2023

Leadership is critical at all levels, be it at family level, church, nation or world stage.

The retired Justice Zibani Makhwade made this statement at the launch of two books written by Reverend, Dr Master Matlhaope of the Botswana Pentecostal Protestant Church in Francistown over the weekend.

Justice Makhwade said Africa was faced with shortage of leadership and such was an area under discussion by several scholars within and outside the continent.

He said the books; Bolts and Nuts of Leadership and Breaking the Circle of Containment & Overcoming the Problem of Success, were God talking, especially with the crux of their chapters around issues of leadership.

“The matter is a life issue that will remain topical for decades to come. 

This is, therefore, a welcome development to have work dedicated for this subject by Reverend, Dr Matlhaope,” he said.

He indicated that no organisation could ever rise above its level of leadership.

He added that the issue of integrity was critical in the current era and therefore imperative for leaders and the general populace to closely examine the type of leaders they had in order to be able to build communities, societies and nations that advanced people’s interests rather than those of the leaders.

On the issue of reading in general, Mr Makhwade appealed to Batswana to revive the culture of reading, saying, ‘it is often said that if one wishes to hide something successfully from an African, the best place is in a book’.

That, he said may be an exaggeration, but it was a fact that a majority of people were poor readers.

“These books ought to be read rather than to be purchased and placed on the shelves and never put to the intended purpose. 

In a wider context, Batswana are generally poorer because of the fact that they lack knowledge in many areas of their lives,” he added.

He congratulated Rev. Dr Matlhaope for taking his time and dedication in writing the two books and appealed to Batswana to read the books with a critique’s eye in order to be able to derive their benefit.

Francistown High Court Judge, Ms Tshegofatso Mogomotsi also indicated that most of leaders in Botswana were faced with numerous challenges.

“Therefore the launch of the two books is a welcome development that should be viewed as a solution in addressing issues of leadership,” Ms Mogomotsi said.

She added that the author of the books was skilled in leadership and had worked tirelessly in achieving his goals in sensitising Batswana on the issue of leadership.

She reiterated that Batswana were not a generation of readers, saying leadership was a cross-cutting subject, not only in Botswana, but the rest of the world.

For his part, Reverend Dr Matlhaope indicated that the topics discussed in the two books were paramount because they dealt with issues of leadership, its challenges and how to address them.

He also stated that most of the African leaders were faced with many challenges, but did not know how to address them.

Meanwhile, Reverend Dr Matlhaope is a Kalkfotein native in the Ghanzi District and is currently serving as a diplomat in Kenya under the Association of Evangelical in Africa (AEA) where he is secretary general. Ends