Abstract
South Africa as a developing country in an emerging economy is under continuous political, social and
economic turbulence and conflict. Since democracy, transformation of society, cities, villages and
workplaces towards the redress of past people injustice has been slow. Living conditions are substandard.
Workplace equity for the majority of African people and other previously disadvantaged people, such as
women, has not happened. The country is plagued with conflict, discontent and continuous protest as a
result. National toxicity in recent times is due to poor leadership, mismanagement of public funds,
unethical decision making, differences in values and multicultural intolerance. This theoretical,
conceptual paper explores this research question: What strategy can leaders and managers implement to
redress conflict and simultaneously revive and promote employee relations and talent management in
the multicultural, emerging South Africa? The purpose and message of this paper is that leaders and
managers can and must rejuvenate the consciousness of people into cooperativeness, collectiveness and
compassion towards harmonious individual and team interactions within society and especially within
the workplace. This paper presents an introspection and review of African, eastern and western
leadership theories and practices on conflict resolution, co-creativeness, multiculturalism, talent
management, mentorship and collaborative leadership. The paper proposes a solution for debate on a
people rejuvenation strategy for the integration of multiculturalism and globalisation within the localised
context of South Africa. The implications for policy makers, leaders and managers in South Africa,
Africa and BRICS are that the strategy can be employed to rejuvenate people towards being productive
in a joyful, multicultural, cooperative workplace