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2007 Transformation Audit Leadership and Legitimacy

“The Transformation Audit this year focuses on leadership and legitimacy: on the way in which many aspects of our national life and development are defined by how they are led and managed. The paradox we see at the macro level is the way in which economic stability, rising affluence and improving growth – normally stabilising factors in democracies – are contradicted by decreasing political confidence such as shown by the SA Reconciliation Barometer. The prospect is that this contradiction will further erode economic confidence. Considering the patterns of employment, we see that though
1.9 million formal sector jobs have been created in the past three years, the painful mismatch between available jobs and job
seekers is becoming more acute. The vacancy rate of top managerial and specialist posts in government alone is in some departments (notably land) and some provinces enough to impede their fulfillment of their mandate. Business and civil society also struggle with this, while trained South Africans of all colours – think of the attrition of teachers and nurses – drain away from crumbling institutions in the sectors where they are needed and sometimes out of the country.”