ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/22/2025, 7:23:10 PM

Article by 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽 They didn’t mastermind your takedown. They reacted to your presence. When you’re scapegoated by a narcissistic leader, it can feel like there must have been a plan. Like the cold shoulders, vague criticisms, and sudden exclusions were part of a calculated, coordinated effort. Like the betrayal was intentional, strategic, and deeply personal. But here’s what’s even harder to accept: Most of these leaders aren’t smart enough to pull that off. They’re not calculating in the way dark triad personalities (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) often are. They’re not quietly moving chess pieces behind the scenes. They’re operating on impulse, insecurity, and a kind of emotional autopilot that is entirely focused on one thing: protecting their image at all costs. They don’t lead with vision - they lead with panic. They don’t manage complexity -they manage perception. They don’t regulate their teams - they regulate their own ego, through whoever threatens it. So when someone like you walks in, calm, clear, organised, and grounded in conviction rather than performance and ego stroking savvy, it sends them into emotional disarray. You don’t orbit them. You don’t react to their moods. You don’t need their approval to function. You represent everything they can’t hold: Stability. Integrity. Emotional clarity. Your mere presence becomes intolerable because it makes their emotional fragility visible. So no, they didn’t plan your exit. But the moment they felt eclipsed, they needed to restore the emotional order. And in their system, that means you either shrink, orbit, or disappear

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/16/2025, 12:05:07 PM

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE💚❤️ Clarity, Chess, and the Quiet Revolution of Purpose In every meeting, there is more on the table than the agenda. There are egos. Power plays. Performances. For those of us who once walked in with heart, purpose, and a genuine desire to serve, it can be disorienting to realize that boardrooms are often arenas—more about chess than change. I used to think being confrontational was a flaw. Now, I see it as a strength when done with integrity. I don’t confront to fight—I confront to clarify. Because where there is no clarity, grudges breed. And grudges corrode trust. So, I speak when it matters—not because I want to win, but because I want peace—with myself and with others. Since 2023, I’ve stopped expecting boardrooms to reflect the ideals I carry. I’ve learned to conserve my energy. I bring my competence, clarity, and commitment to the task—and leave the rest outside. I no longer chase alignment with those playing games. I observe. I deliver. I stay in purpose. I’ve come to accept that some colleagues are more interested in steering the ship than reaching the shore. To survive, one must learn to see—to spot unspoken agendas, read the power maps, discern when to speak, and when silence is strategy. How to play chess in rooms full of people still playing checkers. Patience— not the kind that waits idly, but the kind that sharpens itself in the shadows, ready, aware, and unshaken. My learning to be silent doesn’t mean I have agreed to be trampled or surrendered my voice. It means I have chosen my battles, sharpened my discernment, and anchored my dignity. Silence, for me, is strategic. It’s not withdrawal. It’s wisdom. And when the moment calls—I still speak. Loud. Clear. Unapologetically. It’s a battlefield—dog eat dog—while people suffer and go without services. Once, someone asked me: “When do you work?” The answer is: I work every moment I bring purpose, clarity, and integrity to the table, even when the room feels like a battlefield.

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/24/2025, 12:26:23 PM

Opinion piece: ELECTIONS, ETHICS, AND THE SHADOW POLITICS OF GOVERNANCE: When Policy Shifts Mask Deeper Infringements Tha past week’s developments just got me thinking that as South Africa heads toward the 2026 elections, the country finds itself navigating a series of intersecting ethical, political, and administrative puzzles. Policy decisions that seem technical on the surface such as relaxing BEE rules for foreign corporations, granting departments autonomy from centralized ICT governance, or forming a Government of National Unity (GNU) are, in fact, deeply political. They may have long-term implications for both MORAL AND SOCIAL RIGHTS, particularly when institutions appear to be repurposed for electoral advantage(my view). 🌺TOO CLOSE OF A COINCIDENCE: In the space of weeks, we saw Home Affairs quietly granted authority to bypass SITA oversight, Starlink controversially exempted from BEE obligations, inflammatory rhetoric from GNU leaders about “that lot,” and public discourse hijacked by genocide narratives. These aren’t isolated decisions but they form a strategic pattern of institutional drift, distracting the public while essential oversight systems are being dismantled or politicised. The coincidences are too consistent to ignore, and too critical to dismiss. If we do not pause to interrogate the ethical cost of these converging moves, we risk walking into a redesigned democratic infrastructure one where power operates through exemption, evasion, and emotional manipulation. This is my view: 🌺THE SHIFT FROM EQUITY TO EXPEDIENCY: Starlink and BEE The Communications Department’s willingness to exempt Starlink from BEE’s 30% equity ownership requirement raises pressing moral questions. While the motivation connecting rural areas and improving service delivery is noble, bypassing transformation laws for foreign entities risks eroding the MORAL RIGHTS of historically disadvantaged groups to redress, opportunity, and dignity. If economic access and participation are rights rooted in constitutional morality, then diluting BEE under the guise of progress is not just a policy decision it’s a MORAL trade-off that privileges expediency over justice. 🌺HOME AFFAIRS vs. SITA: Autonomy or Fragmentation? Home Affairs’ request to sidestep SITA aims to boost efficiency which has been granted, yet this move suggests a gradual dismantling of centralized oversight. The SOCIAL RIGHT to efficient, equal access to services may be improved, but the risk of siloed, unaccountable procurement practices rises exponentially. Without unified IT governance, we open the door to fragmented security protocols, corruption in digital service contracts, and possible political capture of state systems, especially TROUBLING IN AN ELECTION YEAR where digital voter systems, ID registrations, and data integrity are crucial. 🌺THE “That Lot” COMMENT: The Politics of Exclusion When DA leader John Steenhuisen said the GNU’s aim was to “keep that lot out of government,” the undertone was clear, that some parties are deemed too dangerous, too corrupt, or too populist to govern. BUT THE ETHICSL DILEMMA lies in using technocratic or bureaucratic shifts (like the ones described above) to structurally exclude political opponents. This raises RED FLAGS about institutional neutrality. If governance becomes a chess game of indirect political control via procurement exemptions, media framing, or foreign-backed service deals, it’s not just bad optics, it’s a violation of the MORAL RIGHT to political inclusion and the social right to pluralistic democracy. 🌺MISDIRECTION AND THE “Genocide” DISCOURSE. At the same time, public discourse is increasingly HIJACKED by polarizing narratives, such as genocide allegations, race-baiting, or identity politics. These are serious issues in their own right, but they can also be weaponized to distract the public from more immediate governance decisions that quietly restructure power. While the nation is debating emotive ideological battles, administrative ethics are eroded behind the scenes: 🌺Contracts are awarded without due transparency. 🌺Departments gain unchecked procurement powers. 🌺Foreign actors influence service delivery through exemptions. 🌺Policy instruments become partisan tools rather than constitutional mandates. 🌺And with the digitization of critical systems like Home Affairs, the movement or reclassification of “refugees” could easily be manipulated, enabling anyone to triplicate or inflate numbersTURNING 49 into 4,900 votes for a specific party, all while no independent oversight monitors the data trail. This is how ethical erosion takes place without a headline. This is how ethical erosion takes place without a headline. 🌺ELECTIONS AND THE MORAL IMPERATIVE OF INSTITUTIONAL TRUST. As South Africa moves toward the 2026 elections, attention is often drawn to loud political rhetoric and global headlines. But beneath the surface, a quiet set of institutional shifts may pose a greater threat to our democratic soul than any single policy announcement. What we are witnessing is not just governance under strain. it is ethical architecture being quietly rewritten. 🌺Five signals stand out: 🚨 1. Equity Compromised: Starlink and BEE Exemptions The decision to exempt Starlink from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements may seem like a tech-forward move. But what it signals is the selective suspension of equity obligations—creating a dangerous precedent where innovation becomes a loophole, not a shared benefit. 🧩 2. Fragmentation of ICT Governance: Home Affairs Bypassing SITA The decision to allow Home Affairs to sidestep the State IT Agency (SITA) fragments national ICT governance. What begins as a quest for efficiency may quickly become a breach in ethical firewalling, allowing unchecked procurement, weakened cybersecurity, and politicised data ecosystems. 🏛️ 3. The “That Lot” Remark and Institutional Neutrality When political leaders state that the Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed to “keep that lot out,” it reveals a dangerous shift: institutions as tools for exclusion. This violates both the spirit and the letter of our constitutional values of impartiality, participation, and pluralism. 📊 4. Inflated Voter Pools & Refugee Reclassification With refugees and identity data increasingly digitised and centralised, the ability to manipulate voter rolls—intentionally or through oversight gaps—becomes a tangible risk. In the absence of Chapter 9 oversight, how will we know if 49 names become 4,900 strategic voters? Electronic oversight gaps are no longer technical risks; they are ethical vulnerabilities. 🎭 5. The Distraction Strategy: Genocide Allegations and Moral Evasion The genocide discourse may be a legitimate international concern but domestically, it serves as a powerful distraction. While the nation debates external atrocities, domestic integrity frameworks are quietly deregulated. Moral outrage must not become a substitute for local ethical vigilance. 🎯 WHAT IS AT STAKE? 🌺The moral right of citizens to fair, transparent governance. 🌺The social right to equitable access to services and impartial institutions. 🌺The constitutional right to inclusive, representative, and pluralistic democracy. If South Africa does not interrogate the ethical cost of these converging moves, it risks cementing a system where power operates through exemption, evasion, and emotionally charged distraction. Democratic integrity depends on transparency, not sleight of hand. Is South Africa at a Crossroads: Ethics, Oversight, and the Quiet Redesign of Democracy? ✅NEED TO: 🌺Is the silent exemption Reaffirming BEE compliance in all tech and telecom agreements. 🌺 ICT decentralisation must comes with equivalent independent oversight. 🌺Audit refugee and identity systems with Chapter 9 institutions before elections. 🌺Policy exemptions or procurement shortcuts during election period- should we be worried? 🌺Institutionalise ethics-based evaluation in procurement, service delivery, and digital platforms. 🧭 In Closing As we approach the 2026 elections, we are not just choosing leaders, we are choosing the soul of our democracy. What will define us: power consolidation or constitutional integrity? Loopholes may deliver short-term wins, but they dismantle long-term trust. “The strength of an institution is not in how much money it manages, but in how honestly and justly it chooses to spend it.” It’s time to stop hiding power behind procedures. Let us rebuild public service and policy around our founding values, not around strategic evasion. #ThembekilesOpinion

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/26/2025, 6:14:44 PM

🇿🇦 WHEN HENDRICK VERWOERD WALKS AGAIN: VOORTREKKER ENEMIES, STRUGGLE SONGS, AND THE DANGEROUS RETURN OF DIVIDE AND RULE🇿🇦🥲🤣 It feels like Hendrik Verwoerd is awake and walking the streets of South Africa again. 🤣🤣The Rainbow Nation is being pulled apart, not by ordinary citizens, but by a dangerous return to the politics of division and conquest. Is “White Power” trying to replace the 1976 cry for “Black Power”? 🤣🤣Or are we just watching the age-old strategy of “divide and rule” come alive once again only now dressed in new clothes, and using old wounds? A RECENT ARTICLE by Independent Global Insight (May 2025) highlights a growing international concern: The European Centre for Information Policy and Security (ECIPS) is echoing warnings first raised by Donald Trump about violence against white farmers in South Africa. These warnings are framed as a form of ethnic-political violence, pointing to hate speech like “Kill the Boer” as a sign of a society slipping into sanctioned hostility with state silence being interpreted as complicity. That article may spark concern. But before we rush to conclusions, we need to ask deeper questions especially about the selective memory at play in both international outrage and our own national symbols. 🏛 THE VOORTREKKER MONUMENT : A Mirror of Our Selective History Inside the iconic Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, the word “ENEMIES” is carved into the marble friezes. These “enemies,” according to the narrative, were the African kingdoms: the Zulu, Ndebele, Xhosa, who resisted Boer expansion. But let’s be honest: How can people defending their land, lives, and sovereignty be enemies in their own country? And today, we must ask: Are we seeing a new version of that same narrative, where white farmers are recast as victims in isolation, without interrogating the history of land dispossession, inequality, and ongoing trauma? This is not to deny that brutal crimes occur on farms nor to downplay any murder, black or white. It is to caution against weaponizing selective pain for global political gains, while ignoring the unhealed wounds of the past. 🔁 THE CYCLE OF INJUSTICE: : From Historical “Enemies” to Modern Fears In 1838, the Voortrekkers cast African resistance as evil. In 1948, apartheid justified itself by protecting the “volk” from black “threats.” Today, in 2025, global actors are once again REVIVING the same tropes: “white victims, black perpetrators,” with little historical nuance. So, let’s flip the question: 🌺Why is it that when farm attacks happen, the world listens but when villages suffer hunger, pit latrines collapse, or police brutality affects black youth, the global alarm remains silent? 🌺WHY DO SONGS OF STRUGGLE become labeled as hate, BUT SYMBOLS OF CONQUEST (like the Voortrekker Monument) are protected as “heritage”? 🌍 WE NEED MORAL CONSISTENCY, Not Political Convenience If we are to speak about violence, incitement, and protection, then we must do so evenly and truthfully. The moral compass must not change based on skin color, politics, or global alliances. Yes, all citizens deserve protection, including white farmers. But also all narratives must be questioned, including those that ignore the ongoing effects of colonization and apartheid. We cannot heal as a nation if we let OLD LIES AND FIND NEW MICROPHONES 🤣🤣 We cannot claim unity while OUR MONUMENTS STILL CALL BLSCK PEOPLE “ENEMIES” We cannot move forward if WE LET YHE EORLD REWRITE OUR PAIN FOR THEIR POLITICS. 🕊️ SO NOW WHAT? 🌺We revisit our monuments not to destroy, but to contextualize. 🌺We revisit our history not to erase, but to understand. 🌺We revisit our present not to point fingers, but to build a future that includes everyone. If we fail to do so, WE RISK TURNING OUR RAINBOW NATION into a shadow of its promise and Verwoerd, indeed, walks again.🤣🥲🥲🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/25/2025, 11:50:29 PM

CAN WE REALLY PROFESSIONALISE A POTJIEKOS?🍲🤣 FACTS: The public service is full of brilliant people, but let’s be honest, many are doing work completely unrelated to what they studied. 🤣Degrees in one corner, daily tasks in another. Most learned on the job because they just needed a job. That’s not a crime, it’s survival. But isn’t that a misfit? And how do we confidently talk about professionalisation while we keep stirring this mix-match stew of qualifications and functions?🤣 THE RESULT? A stew of skills 🤣 some seasoned, some misplaced 🤣 all simmering without a clear recipe. HERE IS THE TRUTH: You can’t fix a skills crisis with “hope-for-the-best” recruitment and recycled job specs. WE NEED TO: 🔍 Audit who is doing what vs. what they’re qualified for, 🎓 Fund re-skilling, RPL, and proper development, 📋 Design competency frameworks, not generic job titles, 🛠️ Partner with professional bodies to set real standards 🔥 Hold HR accountable for job-person fit, not just process compliance. Because you can’t just throw in whatever’s in the fridge and call it governance. 🔥 Can we really talk about “professionalising the public service” while it remains a potjiekos of mismatched degrees and survival-mode appointments? 🍲 A real potjiekos is hearty. But the public service deserves more than leftovers. Let’s start cooking with purpose. #PublicService #Professionalisation #SkillsMismatch #Governance #Leadership #PotjiekosReality #WorkforceDevelopment #ThembekileMakhubele✍️

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/16/2025, 7:13:10 PM

“1 IN 5 CORPORATE EXECUTIVES ARE PYSCHOS. - “A surprising study has revealed that roughly 20% of corporate executives exhibit psychopathic traits, a rate comparable to what researchers observe in prison populations.” Let that sink in. “These traits include a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and a strong desire for dominance or control.” Not all psychopaths are violent. But in today’s corporate world, ruthless decision-making and emotional detachment are often rewarded — even mistaken for leadership. We need to talk.” #NotMyHandWriting #AskAsanteOnBoards

ARE WE TRANSFORMING? with Thembekile Phylicia Makhubele

5/16/2025, 6:25:53 AM

Opinion: The Office of Public Integrity Must Be More Than a Name – It Must Be the Engine Room of Accountability The National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) has proposed a bold restructuring of South Africa’s anti-corruption system by potentially merging the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into a new, independent Office of Public Integrity (OPI). This proposal is long overdue. Corruption in South Africa is not a matter of isolated incidents—it is a systemic crisis. Tackling it requires more than scattered investigations. It demands an integrated, empowered, and mission-driven institution. But the Office of Public Integrity must not become yet another institution buried in bureaucracy. It must be the engine room of public accountability, leading the fight against corruption with independence, innovation, and integrity. What Should the Office of Public Integrity Entail? The OPI must be: 🌟Legally and structurally independent, protected from political interference, and directly accountable to Parliament. 🌟Empowered to initiate investigations without requiring a presidential proclamation, unlike the current SIU. 🌟Coordinated but distinct from the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority, focusing on systemic corruption, ethical violations, and maladministration. 🌟The central custodian of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, responsible for: 🌟Driving its implementation across all spheres of government, 🌟Setting clear performance targets, 🌟Monitoring compliance, 🌟Publishing progress reports, and 🌟Mobilizing society around a common integrity agenda. More Than Investigations – A National Accountability Driver To be truly impactful, the Office must also: 🌟Act as the national clearinghouse for implementation of anti-corruption recommendations from oversight bodies like the Auditor-General, Public Protector, Public Service Commission, and judicial inquiries. 🌟Refer recommendations for urgent implementation or enforcement when departments fail to act. 🌟Oversee asset recovery, working with the SIU and Treasury to reclaim stolen public funds. 🌟Coordinate with the National Anti-Corruption Hotline, strengthening public access and ensuring that whistleblower reports are not lost in institutional silos. This would give South Africa something it currently lacks: a strategic centre of gravity in the fight against corruption. A Listening Post, Not a Watchtower South Africa does not need another ceremonial commission. It needs an institution with teeth—and with reach. One that not only investigates, but implements, recovers, and drives transformation. One that is not just a watchdog, but a shepherd of the state’s moral compass. If done right, the Office of Public Integrity could be the long-missing bridge between citizens who report corruption, institutions that uncover it, and the enforcement arms that must act on it. Let it not be a watchtower on a hill. Let it be a listening post in the heart of the nation—and the driving force behind our national integrity. #TPM