CEOs MUST STOP BEHAVING LIKE POLITICIANS
WHY SOUTH AFRICA'S PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS NEED LEADERS, NOT CAREER POLITICIANS IN EXECUTIVE SUITS
By Thami akaMbongo Manzana
The role of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is one of the most important positions in any institution. In South Africa's public entities, particularly within the Cultural and Creative Industries, CEOs are entrusted with a responsibility that extends far beyond administration, compliance, and financial management. They are meant to be visionaries, institution builders, innovators, and custodians of public trust.
Yet across many public institutions, a troubling pattern has emerged.
The same faces continue to move from one institution to another. One leaves a public entity today and appears in another tomorrow. Another completes a term in one agency and resurfaces in a different organisation shortly thereafter. Looking at the landscape, one could easily conclude that South Africa has a pool of fewer than ten individuals considered capable of leading public cultural institutions.
The question is simple - Is there truly a shortage of capable leaders in South Africa, or have public entities become trapped in a cycle of executive recycling?
This phenomenon has become similar to the political practice of cadre deployment. CEOs move with their networks, allies, and loyalists. New appointments often bring familiar faces, familiar approaches, familiar consultants, and unfortunately, familiar failures. Instead of introducing fresh ideas and new energy, institutions are subjected to the same management philosophies that have often delivered mediocre outcomes.
Public entities are not private businesses.
Yet many CEOs behave as though they own the institutions they lead. Staff members are expected to demonstrate loyalty to individuals rather than to organisational mandates. Stakeholders are treated as outsiders rather than partners. Critics are viewed as enemies rather than valuable contributors to institutional growth.
The institution becomes centred around the CEO instead of the constituency it was established to serve.
In the Cultural and Creative Industries, this problem is particularly damaging. Public entities exist to support artists, cultural practitioners, organisations, and communities. They do not exist to preserve executive careers.
Too many CEOs appear to believe that their primary responsibility is managing government grants. Their focus becomes spending allocated budgets, producing compliance reports, and ensuring clean audits. While financial governance is essential, it should never become the sole measure of success.
A clean audit does not automatically mean a successful institution.
An organisation can receive an unqualified audit opinion while failing artists.
An institution can achieve compliance targets while becoming irrelevant to the sector it serves.
An agency can balance its books while losing the trust of its constituency.
The obsession with audits has created a dangerous culture where process is celebrated more than impact. Success is measured by paperwork rather than outcomes. Reports become more important than people.
The public deserves more.
The creative sector deserves more.
A CEO's role is not merely to manage what government provides. Their responsibility is to grow institutions, attract partnerships, unlock additional resources, build sustainable ecosystems, create opportunities, and position organisations for long-term relevance.
The best CEOs do not simply administer budgets; they multiply value.
They do not wait for Treasury allocations before thinking creatively.
They do not blame government every time there is a challenge.
They build networks, mobilise resources, develop innovative programmes, and create lasting institutional legacies.
Unfortunately, many public entities have become comfortable with maintenance leadership rather than transformative leadership.
Another concerning trend is the pursuit of political approval over public accountability.
Many CEOs spend more time ensuring that principals and political stakeholders are satisfied than engaging with the constituencies they are mandated to serve. They become experts in managing upward while neglecting the people on the ground.
Artists, practitioners, community organisations, and industry stakeholders often feel unheard, disconnected, and excluded from decision-making processes.
This creates a dangerous paradox.
Institutions that were established to serve the public begin operating primarily to satisfy political and bureaucratic expectations.
The result is predictable - growing distrust, declining relevance, and widening gaps between institutions and their stakeholders.
South Africa's Cultural and Creative Industries require leaders who are courageous enough to challenge systems, not merely manage them. The sector needs CEOs who understand that their mandate is public service, not personal brand-building.
The real measure of a CEO should not be how many years they remain in executive positions.
The real measure should be the legacy they leave behind.
Did they transform the institution?
Did they expand opportunities?
Did they empower the sector?
Did they leave the organisation stronger than they found it?
Or did they simply occupy an office, collect a salary, secure another clean audit, and move on to the next public entity?
Public institutions deserve leaders, not politicians in executive suits.
The Cultural and Creative Industries deserve CEOs who see themselves as servants of the sector, not rulers of the institution.
Until that happens, South Africa will continue recycling executives while recycling the same problems.
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