Abstract
Abstract : This paper draws from a research that provided a conceptual framework to facilitate a process of theorising about learning, adaptation, consultation, involvement, patterns of relationships and seeking a stable operating structure for engaging people in building their own realities. The focus of the paper is on how South Africa can achieve sustainable societal transformation through learning and adaptation of the experiences of other successful nations in order to 2 eradicate the socio-economic challenges faced by the majority of its people. The paper seeks to highlight the importance of active citizenry in the effective implementation of policies. The methodology is descriptive and involves content analysis of the multiple cases of Brazil (as a parallel to South Africa) from 2003 at the inauguration of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the end of his term in December 2010. The centrepiece of his integrated effort were social projects to eradicate hunger and poverty in Brazil. The second case is on Sweden (as an example of an egalitarian state). The process involved a detailed and systematic examination of contents of a particular body of material for the purposes of identifying patterns, themes, biases and grouping the data into pre-determined categories. This paper conceptualises learning and adaptation as an intervention to devise suitable and effective social structures that could enhance South African societal transformation. Learning and adaptation is achieved by systemically learning from others and adapting to the internal and prevailing external environment without losing the social system’s identity. The conclusion drawn is that responsible and adaptive leadership is pivotal to societal transformation, when the leaders are able to design suitable social structures of how to involve people in the sustainable societal transformation process.