Women Leadership and Policy in the Energy Sector

Solving South Africa's Energy Resource Crisis
Introduction
The subject of this case study is the role of women in power in South Africa’s energy sector. This case study will answer the question of whether or not South Africa’s first female appointed Minsiter of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is responsible for the ejection of the foreign national powers which previously controlled South Africa’s energy sector. There is a considerable amount of evidence which suggests that Mlambo-Ngcuka had an influential role in this occurrence. Nonetheless, it must be examined in scope and in the context of the displacement of these predominantly male foreign nationals from controlling South Africa’s energy supply.
Therefore, the decision point of this case study is based around the actions that Mlambo-Ngcuka might have taken which produced this result. Not long after she came to power she was responsible for creating a Women’s Energy Group which helped to integrate women into South Africa’s Department of Energy. This case study, then, will examine the contentious viewpoint that the founding of this group—and the subsequent action it took under the auspices of its female Minister of Minerals and Energy—was the decision point resulting in South Africa’s energy section being controlled by those endemic to this country, as opposed to being controlled by foreign nationals.
As such, the subsequent pages will detail the circumstances around the appointing of Mlambo-Ngcuka to Minster of Minerals and Energy, and those contributing to her forming the foregoing Women’s Energy Group. More importantly, the paper will present vivid details about the efforts of that group to oust the presence of foreign nationals from this area of South African commerce. It will also give due consideration to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s objectives once she assumed this position, as well as those of the group she implemented. Of equal value is the consequence of the efforts of the women appointed to the Women’s Energy Group and their efforts.
Thus, this paper will also provide details about the most prominent of these contributions which may or may not have resulted in the elimination of foreigners from controlling the resources of South Africa’s Department of Energy. Retrospectively, the research in this paper will also analyze the various possibilities and constraints which affected the work of Mlambo-Ngcuka and her women’s organization as it sought to deliver South Africa solidarity in its energy department. The author of this document will evaluate all of these various facets of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s tenure as Minister of Minerals and Energy of South Africa within the context of the available evidence, taking care to carefully scrutinize that evidence for various biases. Lastly, this document will identify the specific measures which resulted in the ousting of foreign nationals from South Africa’s energy department, and elucidate whether or not they are applicable to other female-oriented groups in other locations including the United States (Caiazza, 2008, p.106).
Mlambo-Ngcuka’s History
As the principal decision-maker examined within this paper, Mlambo-Ngcuka has a varied and detailed professional and pedagogical history worthy of examination to properly understand her role within the context of female authority in South Africa. Her career path has presently led her to the title of Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of United Nations Women with the United Nations (UN Women, 2018). The obvious focus on womanhood and female empowerment implicit to this title and her present work with the United Nations is merely the latest manifestation of her efforts in this direction spanning several decades.
Born on November 3 of 1955, Mlambo-Ngcuka began her career as a school teacher. However, she evinced tendencies towards the empowerment of women in positions of authority rather early on as her career flourished. In 1983 she became the inaugural president of the Natal Organization of Women, which was affiliated with the United Democratic Front (South Africa History Online, 2011). One of the common themes with her role in this position which is emblematic of that of her entire career was the issue of gender equality. Prior to her appointment as South Africa’s Minister of Minerals and Energy in 1999, Mlambo-Ngcuka served on the board of the Women’s Development Foundation, was youth director for the Young Women’s Christian Association, and held a management consultant position at Cape Town’s Phumelela Services, where “she was responsible for promoting race and gender sensitive organizational development” (South Africa History Online, 2011) among other duties. Clearly, her roles in each of these positions demonstrate a commitment to female empowerment in positions of authority within South Africa.
The Political and Economic Climate
Before Mlambo-Ngcuka took office as the Minister of Minerals and Energy, there were a number of distinct developments taking place within South Africa’s political and economic climate which enabled her to achieve what she accomplished in this role. Foremost of those was the 1998 White Paper on Energy Policy, which explicitly included requirements for native South Africans to expand their involvement in the political and economic developments occurring in this country. This white paper included stipulations for “meaningful participation in the industry by South Africans who were excluded in the past through the general racial political dispensation, social inequalities and provisions governing the industry, specifically” (Energy.gov, 2018).
The true valuation of this white paper and its decree that South Africans—as opposed to foreign nationalists looking to exploit the country—should benefit from these resources is realized when one acknowledges the specific resources involved. South Africa is symbolic of Africa as a whole in this regard because it has an abundance of natural resources which are enviable to other parts of the world. With native South Africans and the government that supports them empowered by these resources, the country had the potential to considerably better itself as a developing nation. According to the white paper:
“Fossil fuels, such as coal, uranium, liquid fuels, and gas play a central role in the socio-economic development of our country, while simultaneously providing the necessary infrastructural economic base for the country to become an attractive host for foreign investments in the energy sector,” (Department of Minerals and Energy, 1998, p. 2).
This fact is tremendously important for understanding the context in which Mlambo-Ngcuka came to power as the Minister of Minerals and Energy. The very country of South Africa was at that time clamoring for more sway over the natural resources which it should have possessed by right. In fact, in the previously mentioned white paper the very department which Mlambo-Ngcuka was in charge of was attempting “to set the sustainable presence, ownership or control by historically disadvantaged South Africans of a quarter of all facets of the liquid fuels industry or plans to achieve this as a milestone to trigger the substantive re-regulation of the petroleum and liquid fuels industry in South Africa” (Energy.gov, 2018). The re-regulation of these resources was perhaps the impetus for this movement. However, an extremely vital component of this impetus involved giving South Africans ownership over, initially, a portion of those resources. Therefore, Mlambo-Ngcuka was appointed Minister of Minerals and Energy at the very moment the department was attempting to assert much more ownership of these resources than it previously had.
The Decision Point
The decision point which is the focal point of this case study is not the appointment of Mlambo-Ngcuka in a leadership position for South Africa’s minerals and energy department. The decision point was what exactly she would do to achieve the objectives specified in the aforementioned white paper. Retrospectively, it appears that the formulation of a task force which eventually helped to expel foreign nationals from hoarding South Africa’s mineral and energy resources was the turning point in this case study, and a testament to the efficacy of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s leadership proclivities. However, both this assessment and the decision point supporting it are contentious because as recently mentioned above, there was already a political and economic climate in place to achieve this same objective. One can therefore argue either side of this issue: that the action taken by Mlambo-Ngcuka in forming the task force was the catalyst for claiming South Africa’s minerals and resources from the power of foreign nationals, or that the previous political and economic climate was responsible for this situation.
This decision point became even more disputatious when one considers some of the ancillary factors involved. The decision maker, of course, was Mlambo-Ngcuka; the decision was how to best fulfill the desired aims of the white paper for giving South Africa control over its fossil fuel resources. Fulfilling those aims was unequivocally the objective of the decision maker in this instance. However, when one views this decision in the context of the additional actors involved in it, the worth of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s task force team is undoubtedly called into question. As mentioned earlier in this paper, there were other industry proponents who shared the same interests of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s department. These most eminently included SAPIA and AMEF, although one could also make the case that virtually every native South African had a vested interest in ridding their country’s resources of the sway of foreigners.
Those foreign nationals were another interested party in this decision, albeit from a directly oppositional stance of that of Mlambo-Ngcuka and her supporters. Their objectives were to maintain the status quo of South Africa’s energy and mineral resources. Doing so enabled these foreign nationals to continue to monopolize these wealth-inducing resources of another country. Finally, it needs to be noted that there was also one other stakeholder in this decision: the global political and economic community. The interests of the foreign nationals were largely aligned with the global political and economic community, including many members who profited from the exploitation of resources endemic to South Africa’s native population. The global community supported the efforts of the aforementioned foreign nationals, who had an agenda antipodal to that of Mlambo-Ngcuka and the other South African organizations that rallied with hers to overthrow the influence of these foreigners.
Selecting the Task Team
Therefore, it is critical to examine Mlambo-Ngcuka’s actions once she was tasked with guiding this department. During the first 18 months in office, Mlambo-Ngcuka had a series of meetings with leaders in the energy and minerals fields in South Africa. Specifically, she worked closely with representatives from “the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) and the African Minerals and Energy Forum (AMEF)”. These industry participants shared many of the same values and ideals that Mlambo-Ngcuka had as far as realizing the objectives stipulated in the white paper. Some of those ideas included hosting an industry summit to determine how best to achieve the white paper’s goals. Ultimately, however, Mlambo-Ngcuka decided to engender a task team from her ministry to take action to input regulations in the energy and minerals industries, as well as to assert control over the natural resources as explicated in the White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa.
It is important to note that many of the energy resources stemmed from fossil fuels, which were particularly abundant in South Africa at this point in time. Still, the task team appointed by Mlambo-Ngcuka was able to enact some very detailed measures which produced effects quite favorable to the African nation. The team chose to adopt a collaborative framework with which to discuss ideas pertaining to deregulation and the possibility of South African solidarity in these two fields. Many of its meetings took place in the form of “workshops examining the entire liquid fuels petroleum industry in South Africa” (Energy.gov, 2018). These workshops were the means by which task members interacted with others within this industry. Oftentimes, they would involve numerous lengthy and candid discussions about how to achieve the white paper’s objectives.
In this respect, it is important to consider the make up of the task team appointed by Mlambo-Ngcuka. Although there were certainly males involved in these workshops, a good percentage of those selected by Mlambo-Ngcuka were women. This fact is both aligned with her background at this point, as well as with the future objectives she was attempting to achieve at the time. Some may have simply viewed this opportunity or even Mlambo-Ngcuka’s position in general as an opportunity to balance the scales for gender equality. Such an esteem is not only myopic, but also fails to account for the full scope of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s purpose in selecting her “ministerial task team” (Energy.gov, 2018). Although there were no definite time frames exclusively stipulated in The White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa, she still was trying to demonstrate her competency in her still relatively newfound role as Minister of Minerals and Energy. Therefore, she took the utmost care in assigning the individuals she chose to her task force.
Furthermore, one might even successfully argue that her decision to select a fair amount of women to her task force was partially predicated on the nature of the work involved. Regardless of the effect that the individual constituents of her team had on the overall project, it’s worth noting that there was an assortment of strategies the team derived for South Africa to take ownership of its energy and minerals industries. These different measures were largely conceived of in response to the specific petroleum based fuels that were at stake, which included oil and gas, crude oil refining, transportation of petroleum, synthetic fuels manufacturing, and petroleum product marketing (Energy.org, 2018). These strategies were largely the basis for what today is known as The Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter. A direct product of the various workshops Mlambo-Ngcuka’s team conducted to determine how to achieve the goals of the white paper, this charter leveraged a legal basis for the appropriate of the previously mentioned resources.
The Liquid Fuels Employment Charter
The specific diction employed in this document indicate that according to South African law,
"organs of state" may implement a "procurement policy providing for categories of preference in the allocation of contracts and the protection or advancement of persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination" (The Department of Minerals and Energy, 2000).
Naturally, the discrimination alluded to in this document refers to the policy of discrimination that was rampant in South Africa for most of the country’s history (Cannon, 1988, p.77). —until relatively recently. Apartheid officially ended in this county in 1994, although many of the socio-economic oppressions it put in place still existed. In this respect, Mlambo-Ngcuka’s department was asserting the basic right of a nation flexing its solidarity to not only overthrow any remnants of colonial repression in relation to its energy and mineral resources, but also to take control over those resources.
Essentially, what Mlambo-Ngcuka did with the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter was simply enforce the law that until relatively recently, the country of South Africa simply lacked the hegemony to enforce. Still, this document largely originated as the product of the six strategies devised in the workshops hosted by Mlambo-Ngcuka’s ministry task. Those six strategies encompassed equity of employment, legislation and regulation, financing, capacity building, procurement and ownership and control (Energy.gov, 2018). The focus of nearly each of these six strategic measures was to provide native South African control over these areas of the mineral and energy industry.
Six Stratagems
In particular, employment equity was designed as a means to put native South Africans in supervisory positions within these two industries. The capacity building strategy acknowledges that there is an assortment of advanced skills South African companies in the minerals and energy fields need to successfully compete on a national or a global scale. This area of focus, then, is to help companies expand their skilled labor supply to meet these demands. The financing strategy was devised as a means of assisting South African companies in the energy and materials industries with the capital necessary to compete with the foreign national interests. Specifically, this measure called for “financing mechanisms” (Energy.gov, 2018) to assist in this capacity while considering the typical slow return rate serving as inhibitors for many startup organizations.
One of the most valuable strategies was that focused on legislation and regulation. This strategic implement was generated to develop interventions at both of these levels which would favor the intentions of South African companies in the energy and minerals fields. The procurement strategy was fostered to assist with the supply chain needs of new South African entrants into the fossil fuels market. Specifically, this stratagem includes the means of issuing procurement from the “private sector and public sector” (Energy.gove, 2018). The ownership and control stratagem was developed to help provide the underlying infrastructure necessary to underpin South African companies in the fossil fuels marketplace. It also typified the themes of the other five strategies in general, as initially delineated in the White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa.
The Value of Gender Equality
The collaborative approach utilized by the managerial task committee appointed by Mlambo-Ngcuka to fulfill the goals of the previously mentioned white paper is noteworthy for several reasons. Firstly, it has already been observed that there was a fair amount of women involved in this group. Gender equality is critical to analyze in respect to how the inclusion of women affect it for two main reasons, each of which are intrinsically related to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s group. Gender equality is a means by which one can effectively nullify the disproportionate numbers of men and women for certain professional, political, or economic pursuits (Hartmann, p. 89). Thus, on the one hand gender quality means it does not matter what gender a person is. However, on the other hand, gender equality means that there are approaches one can utilize which have traditionally been neglected (Howes, 2009, p. 44) —such as those which may be natively associated with women and the female gender in general.
Although men can participate in workshops and were definitely included in the workshops conducted by Mlambo-Ngcuka’s ministerial task team, the nature of these workshops lent themselves to more feminine approaches utilizing techniques such as “cultural intelligence” (Breslin et al, 2006, p. 17) towards problem solving. The simple fact that these workshops were termed as such instead of meetings or conferences reveals connotations of a collaborative, female approach to working through issues. There is a degree of equality (including gender equality, but also including other facets of equality) the term workshop connotes. Conversely, meetings are typically emblematic of a more rigidly hierarchical structure, in which there are both superiors and inferiors. When one thinks about a meeting, one thinks about leaders or bosses telling their subordinates what to do. When one envisions a workshop, one envisions various facets of collaboration, ideation synthesis, and a free flowing exchange of concepts and opinions which benefits the group as a whole.
This approach is more aligned with female manifestations of leadership and power than it is with those of men. There is literature indicating that female leaders are more apt to consider the overall needs of the groups they are in charge of than men are when the latter are in leadership positions (Bacchi, 1999, p. 24). This sort of communal approach to problem solving evidenced by Mlambo-Ngcuka and actuated by the abundance of women she had on her ministerial team for achieving the white paper’s objectives is indicative of this female-oriented aspect of leadership (Phillips, 2006, p. 90). Mlambo-Ngcuka and her group did not set out to assert their authority and tell other people how to fulfill the goals of that particular document. Rather, they decided to converse with others, collectively brainstorming, and synthesizing the views and opinions of many others to realize this end, which is typically characteristic of female leaders (Palley, 2009, p. 52) . Evidence indicates that doing so was far from facile as
“the process leading to the signing of the charter was as important as the document itself. The final document, signed by key industry players in November 2000, is a statement of the commitment of the signatories to transformation of the industry as a principle, as well as details of the key measures and expectations” (Energy.gov, 2018).
Nonetheless, the end result was an amalgamation of opinions and approaches which eventually wrested the majority of fossil fuel industry power away from foreign nationals and under the auspices of native South Africans. Moreover, this result was achieved under the authority of a woman as leader of the Department of Minerals and Energy, Mlambo-Ngcuka. It was achieved via the deployment of a ministerial task organization which was widely populated by women. As such, the very methodology of collaboration, listening, and combining varying viewpoints and opinions of all the organizations present at a series of workshops is what ultimately produced this result.
Successful Tactics
There is a wealth of value associated with deconstructing exactly which measures Mlambo-Ngcuka utilized to achieve the desired objective of asserting South African control over the fossil fuels industry in this particular country. Were one to stratify these measures in a linear fashion, the first is obviously the formation of the ministerial group dedicated to reaching the goals of the white paper. Implicit to this decision was a tacit acknowledgement on the part of Mlambo-Ngcuka that no lone person could accomplish this task or rather, that the tasks would be more readily successfully completed by involving others. To that end, it was critical that she formed a group to determine what specific steps were required to make the aims of the white paper a reality.
The next tactical implementation which proved successful was the decision to involve the assistance of other organizations. The Department of Minerals and Energy received a substantial amount of aid from other organizations that were part of the fossil fuel industry. These organizations were influential in abetting the process by which Mlambo-Ngcuka’s department was able uphold the standards identified in the white paper. These organizations participated in the workshops conducted by Mlambo-Ngcuka’s ministerial task team, and also signed the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter. Their involvement was further proof of the commitment by Mlambo-Ngcuka to broaden the resources at her disposal to fulfill the white paper’s objectives. She relied on a diversity of people—beginning with her mistrial team—and including other like-minded South African groups interested in asserting control over the fossil fuel resources in this country. These groups not only included SAPIA and AMEF, but also other organizations such as the Black Economic Empowerment Commission (The Department of Minerals and Energy, 2000, p. 2) and those part of the public sector as well.
The selection to discuss particular strategic measures as a series of interactive workshops with a degree of parity among groups and members is similarly an extension of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s propensity to maximize the input of others for the task of completing the ends specified in the White Paper on the Energy Policy of South Africa. What is a distinct tactical measure that was instrumental in achieving the objectives of that white paper was to actually promulgate the results of those workshops via the aforementioned charter. This charter officially sanctioned the solutions stemming from those workshops, and helped to serve as a framework for carrying out the aims of the white paper (The Department of Minerals and Energy, 2000, p. 2).
Significance of the Decision Point
Furthermore, the charter was the initiation point for actually implementing the various measures discussed during the workshops. This fact alone illustrates the salience of its significance for the South African people attempting to claim the fossil fuel resources that were theirs by right, but not might—until 2000. In this respect, the charter heralds the beginning of the embodiment of the values espoused during the workshops, as well as their strategic corollaries. It is also a striking testament to the effectual leadership prowess of Mlambo-Ngcuka, who had been in office less than two years at this point. The charter symbolized a myriad of facets about Mlambo-Ngcuka’s proficiency as a leader. It not only proved that she could actually take action to further the aims identified in the white paper, but that she also had the relevant strategies (and the tactics) to result in such a tangible marker of success.
This point actually warrants further elucidation. The very white paper that specified the various goals Mlambo-Ngcuka and her allies were trying to fulfill contains a list of basic standards for the South African people in regards to their fossil fuel resources. It explicates what exactly the Department of Minerals and Energy was trying to do. However, the critical part of this white paper is that is fails to say how to achieve those goals. Moreover, it was written under the auspices of a different Minster of Minerals and Energy, Dr. P.M. Maduna. It was well and good for Dr. Maduna to decree what the department he would end up leaving should do. However, actually developing strategic measures—at the basic level of communication, in the case of the workshops involved—to carry out those goals is an entirely different, infinitely more difficult task. It is never easy to work with other people, particularly among different factions such as organizations.
Still, Mlambo-Ngcuka was able to devise an approach that relied on women and characteristics of leadership traditionally ascribed to females to act on the white paper’s standards and actually bring them into existence. The charter she helped write, following the success of the collaborative workshops she implemented with the assistance of her mistrial team, was the pivotal first step in meeting the objectives of the white paper. This tangible marker of success is indicative of the prowess she displayed less than two years as the first female Minister of Minerals and Energy.
The final tactic for which Mlambo-Ngcuka should be credited is inherently linked to the establishment of the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter. The legal basis upon which South Africa, as realized through endemic corporations and organizations operating in the fossil fuels and minerals space, was able to appropriate control over this industry is denoted within the charter. By grounding the actions of the Department of Minerals and Energy and their allies in a legal foundation, the efforts of Mlambo-Ngcuka were not only lawful but actually necessary to uphold the law.
It is important to understand which facets of the law were invoked in order for South Africa to take control over its own natural resources as related to energy. That specific legislation included the Skills Development Act, the Competition Act, Act 89, and the Employee Equity Act. What is most significant about these various pieces of legislation is that they were all passed in 1998, the same year in which Dr. Maduna drafted the white paper outlining the goals of the Department of Minerals and Energy.
The Other Side of the Decision Point
The year in which each of these pieces of legislation were enacted is vital because it underscores the effectiveness of legality in taking control over one’s resources—as well as in expelling the presence of foreign nationals. During his last year as Minister of the Minerals and Energy Department, Dr. Maduna not only helped to formulate the white paper that would guide the Department of Minerals and Energy to helping South Africans assume control over their fossil fuel resources, but he also helped to create a legal environment in which doing so was possible. The Employee Equity Act, for example, was designed to ensure there is a degree of parity in the different types of employees who have access to fossil fuel resources. The Skills Development Act was generated to help bridge the gap in skills between some of the South African companies, their employees, and those of the foreign nationals who were controlling the energy and mineral resources in South Africa at that time. The Competition Act helped to create conditions in which South African companies could effectively compete with those of foreigners within the energy and minerals industries.
Of course, there was little coincidence in the dating of the white paper and the dating of each of these three pieces of legislation. The confluence of these factors demonstrates that regardless of who was at its helm in 1999 (which is when Mlambo-Ngcuka was appointed Minster of Minerals and Energy), the Department of Minerals and Energy had already positioned several substantial measures to help the Department of Minerals and Energy fulfill the objectives in the white paper. These laws, as well as the Preferential Procurement Framework Act 2000 and Act 5 2000, helped to establish a climate in which there were additional resources granted to South African companies to help assert control over their fossil fuels and minerals. It is important to note that these last two pieces of legislation were enacted during Mlambo-Ngcuka’s leadership—strongly implying that she is deserving of some credit for their passage and the procurement advantages they delivered to South African companies.
Possibilities and Constraints
Still, the legal climate derived from the preemptive efforts of the Minister of Minerals and Energy prior to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s assuming of this role was simply one of several different facets that resulted in the attainment of the objectives delineated in the white paper. Having a legal basis with which to promote South African companies and native interests in the energy and minerals fields was a crucial step in achieving those objectives. Still, it was far from the sole requirement. There still was a surfeit of work and strategizing necessary to reach those desired ends. The legal climate actually simply added to the pressure Mlambo-Ngcuka was facing to succeed in this endeavor. On the one hand, it helped to make inroads in the efforts required of the new Minister of Minerals and Energy in 1999. But it also thrust her into a position in which there was even more at stake for her to determine a way to validate those laws which had been erected, and more importantly, to enforce them in a way that was beneficial for native South African interests. As such, this legal climate offered a distinct possibility or a legal mechanism for Mlambo-Ngcuka to succeed in the desired goals of the white paper.
There were two primary constraints which Mlambo-Ngcuka overcame with her collaborative approach. The first was the disparate partisans involved in helping South Africans eliminate the presence of foreign nationals in its energy and minerals industry. Oftentimes, multiple organizations will have multiple objectives and ulterior motives based on their natural differences which makes collaboration either straining or unsuccessful. The many groups Mlambo-Ngcuka’s Department of Minerals and Energy worked with must have had different opinions and viewpoints for how to achieve the white paper’s goals. Mlambo-Ngcuka’s capital achievement was getting these various organizations to put their differences aside and focus on the common goal of expelling foreign interests in South Africa’s fossil fuel resources. She was able to do so via the creation of her task force, which was comprised of a fair amount of women, and the workshops they put together with the aforementioned other South African organizations.
The second constraint was simply the presence of the foreign nationals and the surrounding global community supporting their appropriation of South African resources. Those nationals and their champions did not willingly abdicate their stronghold on South Africa’s energy and minerals. Rather, they were deliberately rooted out by the careful admixture of laws, regulation, and South African solidarity typified by the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter. Simply overcoming their grip on the energy and mineral supplies that were rightfully South Africa’s was a huge challenge, and the most exacting constraint with which Mlambo-Ngcuka and her constituents had to contend.
Best Practices
There are a number of best practices one can glean from the results attained by Mlambo-Ngcuka in playing a fundamental role in fulfilling the white paper’s goals of ridding South Africa of the overbearing influence of foreign nationals on the former’s mineral and energy supplies. The most prominent of these is the formal assertion of the objectives of the Department of Minerals and Energy in accomplishing this task via the oft mentioned white paper. That paper clarified which specific measures were required of the Department of Minerals and Energy, and set the standards by which success or failure in this matter were to be measured.
Another best practice is to leverage a legal basis for any transformative or even organizational objectives such as expelling foreign interests from South Africa’s energy and minerals industries. Mlambo-Ngcuka was able to base many of her measures for carrying out the white paper’s specifications because of the legal precedents established around the time she became Minister of Minerals and Energy.
The next best practice was to form a committee dedicated to carrying out the objectives denoted in the white paper. Implicit to this best practice is an acknowledgement that no leader can do everything by himself or herself, and that collective efforts can produce the sort of value which is difficult to duplicate with solo ones.
An extremely important best practice was to collaborate with other organizations with a definite stake in the matter via a collaborative approach focused on workshops. This best practice is based on the underlying merit of soliciting and synthesizing the opinions and viewpoints of others to help inform the decision-making process. The leadership values of understanding, patience, kindness, collaboration, and active listening integral to this approach are typically characteristic of female leadership.
The final best practice identified in this document is to promulgate the findings of the workshops—of the cooperative approach for working with other organizations or stakeholders in South Africa’s aims—via a formal charter which makes those findings both official and actionable.
The Decision’s Outcome
It is not inconceivable that these best practices can spur similar transformations for historically disadvantaged people in other countries, including in the United States. When one considers the role that Mlambo-Ngcuka had in each of these best practices and that she was able to develop the means of fulfilling the objectives of the white paper, it seems clear that her decision to form a task team based on cooperative principles was the deciding factor in achieving the paper’s goals. She is due a considerable amount of credit in this regard, and is emblematic of the sort of strides women are making in professional positions throughout the world (Wilson, 2004, p. 7).
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