Resilient leadership: How South Africa's leaders are driving renewal

SOUTH Africa is a nation that knows both endurance and despair.

- NOMVULA ZELDAH MABUZA

The economy limps along at 0.6 percent growth, unemployment traps more than 32 percent of the labour force and infrastructure strains continue to test confidence. Against this backdrop, it is easy to assume that competence is absent and that leadership has collapsed into permanent decline. And yet, beneath the headlines of failure, there are pockets of renewal.

Quietly, and often under immense pressure, a generation of leaders across state-owned enterprises, corporates and new ventures have demonstrated that South Africa is not short of excellence. These stories do not erase wider challenges, nor are they immune to fragility. But they show that discipline and consistency can deliver measurable turnarounds even in the hardest conditions.

Few expected Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) to recover quickly from the double blow of Covid-19 and collapsing aviation revenues. Yet under CEO Mpumi Mpofu, the company posted a R1.1 billion profit in 2024/25, grew revenue by 13 percent to R7.9 billion and set out an ambitious R21.7 billion investment plan to upgrade terminals and runways. This is more than balance-sheet repair: it is about restoring airports as engines of tourism, trade and national credibility.

If any job symbolises inherited crisis, it is the helm of Eskom. The utility has long been synonymous with operational strain and decades of difficulty. Dan Marokane's tenure has not ended load-shedding, but it has stabilised operations and begun to reposition Eskom towards innovation, most visibly through the 100 MWh Battery Energy Storage System, a first for the utility. Progress remains vulnerable, but it shows that with consistency, even institutions weighed down by history can begin to shift direction.