Abstract
The uncertainties and political instabilities created by geopolitics, pandemics and local
government coalitions ushered in since the 2016 local government elections as the
new way of governing that impacts how cities function. Furthermore, growth in cities’
populace owing to urbanisation introduces further complexities. These multifaceted
challenges that keep changing shape and form require a fresh calibre of leadership to
navigate such environments.
This dissertation explored responsible leadership practices to sustain socio-economic
transformation. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology, where data
was collected using semi-structured interviews with ten purposively sampled
participants from the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan government. The participants
were largely members of an executive management team administratively reporting to
the City Manager and politically to their respective members of the Mayoral
Committee. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, and seven themes
emerged. The central theme was leaders’ ability to work on themselves as an avenue
to tackle challenges effectively and meaningfully.
The findings elucidate that leaders must have a strong sense of self, that is, knowing
who they are, their personal vision and how this aligns with the organisation’s vision.
A sense of self enables leaders to understand their individual gaps, thereby, launching
self-development through various avenues such as engaging in research. Selfmastery
becomes a strong building block when working in a team, with peers and,
importantly, forming functioning partnerships outside the organisation. Partnerships
are important as means to address City challenges. The study’s main recommendation
relates to a need to expand the current Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA)
programme offered to administrative executive leadership at local government. The
expansion must include a responsible leadership component so that there is a level of
awareness amongst executives to ensure that the spirit of the MFMA is guarded as
part of delivering on the municipalities’ mandate.
A responsible leader within a city context is aware that owing to global challenges and
the growing populace, the needs become varied, complex and broad; hence, the City
might simply not be able to address all of these by itself. Forming functioning
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partnerships through stakeholder engagement is a strategic approach to address
these ever-growing needs. However, these must be founded on honesty, integrity and
ethics for societal impact.
Key words: leadership, responsible leadership, socio-economic transformation,
partnership, stakeholder management.