Leadership and Ethics in Higher Education 141of certain interests that are conservative and of dubious motives. All
claims to and aspirations towards leadership must be subjected to ethical
examination. What are the theoretical foundations for any examination
of the notion of leadership?
9.2.3 Leadership in a Space of ‘Lived Reality’
The German Philosopher Immanuel Kant talks about the “categorical
imperative”. It is a principle that says that "I am never to act otherwise
than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal
law." If it is good enough, it must be good to be shared. That is my idea
of a common good. This Kantian adage is really about living in practice
that which one believes, to share with others that which one holds dear,
and to act at all times with moral consistency. In this regard one cannot
but express alarm at times at the moral bankruptcy in public life both in
matters of state and well as in the private sector. For some reason, words
have lost their meaning.
One listens to politicians decry to high heaven the incidence of crime
and threatening that action will be taken against any found guilty of
corruption. In truth, we know, that in the same vein the same politicians
are actively engaged in corrupt dealings, and that the resources of the
state are being diverted to non-legitimate purposes. Huge infrastructure
programmes have less to do with a desire to improve the wellbeing of
people and create employment than with huge deals that are to be made,
and the private sector aids and abets corruption by engaging in corrupt
dealings to divert the resources of the state. No wonder therefore that the
word “honour” no longer has any meaning, as ministers and senior
public servants are engaged in a culture of corrupt activities. The real
danger, though, is that this will all become so inane (meaning, without
significance, empty or void) to ordinary citizens that they have come to
expect no better from politicians and immoral behaviour becomes the
common signifier of being a South African. When people become
cynical and get to expect no better from leaders and from politicians,