Linda Zama's 'Beyond The Icon' unveils the leadership wisdom she learned from Madiba

On a rainy and cold winter’s evening in Cape Town, there was something very touching witnessing the wisdom exchanged by both young and old at the launch of Struggle activist Linda Zama’s book “Beyond the Icon”.

Zama, who worked on high-profile cases in the 1990s and who also worked as a lawyer for Nelson Mandela, has drawn on her experience working with Madiba and challenges readers to look beyond the extraordinary legacy he left and discover the timeless leadership principles that can be applied in everyday life.

According to the book’s overview: “In ‘Beyond The Icon’, Linda Zama shares intimate stories of Nelson Mandela -Madiba-that reveal leadership forged by empathy, service, and moral courage. This book preserves a living example of strategic, values-driven leadership- one that challenges managers, activists, and citizens to measure their own character against what truly matters.

“‘Beyond The Icon’ is an essential guide for anyone seeking leadership rooted in vision, humility, and the courage to put others first.”

Instead of a traditional book launch where Zama spoke about the process of writing the book, she instead used it as a unique opportunity to have a cross-generation panel discussion in which she showcased the lessons the book speaks about and how people can draw inspiration from Mandela’s leadership. 

Sekunjalo Group founder and founder of Survé Philanthropies, Dr Iqbal Survé, real-estate agent Lumko Sifumba and the descendent of Robben Island escapee, David Stuurman, who is now a civil servant, Priscilla Stuurman-Molefe, were also alongside Zama on the panel.

Zama shared that she remembered being phoned one day as Madiba “wanted me to gather all his grandchildren so that he could meet them as granddad”.

“I did. They were excited. I remember I organised my car and another car to take the children to the hotel, and we were there. The excitement. There was another little one, a four-year-old.

“When we arrived, we were then informed by protocol that the doctor had ordered him to relax. All right, we accepted that. We waited. We were (eventually) ushered to the penthouse.

“The children, Nandi, Ndileka, and the other grandchildren. I'll never forget that day… He was supposed to attend a meeting. He pulled him (one of his grandchildren) to the bathroom so that he could communicate with him as just granddad for less than five minutes.

“That was our meeting… Madiba had five minutes with his grandchildren. I dare you here, who would extend that, and not appreciate what he did? 

“I'm just sharing what I witnessed because I got into my car. I'm very strong, but I cried. I was crying for those children,” Zama said.

“Another time, he was angry. Madiba was deeply committed to integrity. They had had a discussion with President (F.W.) de Klerk, and the agreement was (about) how they were going to conduct themselves.

“It was during the non-aligned movement. So President de Klerk was president. Madiba was a president-in-waiting because the ANC was not in power. and President de Klerk, broke that undertaking. Wow. I saw him (Mandela) strutting, and I knew because he was a boxer.

“And he addressed, for the first time, President de Klerk that he thought he was a man of integrity. That to me was very important.”

Zama shared other stories which all emphasised the values and spoke to the lessons she witnessed first hand from Mandela.

Survé congratulated Zama on having written the book, saying that it is important to share the experiences and as there is a memory loss in our country right now.

“People tend to associate what's happening in the country today with things that are not good, and in doing so, the histories of people in the past are also trashed. So many of our Struggle heroes and icons, who should really be acknowledged in the way Linda has done, have not been, precisely because of the complexity of politics today,” he said.

Survé shared that when Madiba delivered his iconic address at the steps of City Hall in Cape Town, he was still a practising doctor, and had been on hand in case of a possible emergency.

“We all got caught up in the excitement, including myself, and nothing happened to Madiba… but there was an incident where it was a foreign photographer. 

“I was inside the waiting room with Mandela, and then someone called me to say, ‘Listen, someone's been very badly injured’, and it was this photographer. I rushed out forgetting about Mandela, just to be very clear, and he (the photographer) was unconscious. He was unconscious, but he was okay.

“Long story short is that I went back to the waiting room. and Mandela came back from the speech. I said to him, ‘You know, I missed a lot of what you said because I was attending to this photographer’, and he said to me, ‘You got your priorities right’. 

“I'll never gonna forget that because it showed, notwithstanding the fact that this was his first day as a free person after so long, (that) he really thought of someone else. And I think that was to me the value and the take-home message; that he was completely unselfish every step of the way,” Survé said.

When the panel discussion turned to the audience, people were moved to share their own ideas and experiences all of which centred around the values we could learn from Madiba, but also what is lacking in leadership today.

A key theme of the discussions also emphasised how important it is for the generations to speak to each other, and share their wisdom.

Ambassador Ruby Marks, who was among the attendees, offered up some advice touching on how the values of Madiba were important but they also have to be viewed through a particular lens. 

“As we remember all of those wonderful sayings of Mandela; it happened in a particular context. We now need a new political imagination that says, 'How does those values travel in this particular period?'”

* “Beyond the Icon” is available at Clarke's Bookshop on Long Street.

culture_thenational@nationalmg.co.za

THE NATIONAL