Transformation and Governance
Author： Source： Date：2017-09-01
Editor’s notes: In retrospect of the remarkable past that South Africa has gone through to end apartheid and in pursuit of equality and prosperity, the Former President of South Africa shared with us his aspirations for good governance and the necessity of reform.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m here speaking from the most southern of Africa. It’s a great visit for me to be able to address today on the important questions of transformation and governments.
According to Charles Darwin, the success of species is not determined by their own strengths or intelligence, but by their ability to adapt to change. Because in this area, that our homo sapiens ancestors did very well. Not only were they able to adapt to the rapidly changing environment created by a succession of ice ages, they were progressively able to change the environment in which they lived. In effect, we humans became the only species with the ability to manage changes.
This is the secret of our phenomenal success. And it has led us to the point now where for most of our lives we live entirely in the environments that we ourselves have created-- our homes, our cities, and our offices. Our ability to manage changes continues to be the key to success today for individuals, for companies and for countries.
Twenty-seven years ago, when I became the President of South Africa, I was confronted by the need to change radically the direction in which our country had been going. I was often asked whether the decision that I took after I became president in September 1989, the decision to transform South Africa, was the result of some or other sudden conversion or insight. It wasn’t. Neither was it a sudden change of direction. It was, in fact, the culmination of a long process of introspection, a long process of reform that started in 1978 when my predecessor, PW Botha became Prime Minister. Introspection, having a good heart to look at yourself, and acceptance of the need to change are the first step in the process of transformation.
Resistance to change is deeply ingrained in us. In our cases, in South Africa, the whites and other minorities have well-based reasons to fear change. They were deeply concerned. First, about how they would be able to ensure that the reasonable rights of minorities would be projected under a majority rule dispensation. It must be remembered that the right to national self-determination had been the central theme of my people –the Afrikaners –history for more than one hundred and fifty years. We twice defended our independence against Britain, the mightiest empire of the time. The Anglo-Boer War (1899 –1902) was the biggest war that the British fought between the Napoleonic Wars and the Firsts World War. During the war Britain deployed four hundred thousand troops in South Africa, compared with the sixty-five thousand troops that it sent to U.S. during the American War of Independence. I say this because it’s important to understand my people, the Afrikaners, were a separate nation, and felt just as strongly about their right to self-determination as any other nation. So, firstly, how would they be in the majority rule of this nation to ensure that the rights of minorities would be maintained? Then second, they would concern about how the whites of South Africans be sure that the transformation of our society would not quickly lead to the chaos and tyranny that had characterized the decolonization process in so many other parts of Africa? By the mid-80s, there had already been more than eighty coup d'états in Africa and there was only a handful of successful and stable countries on the continent.
Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly clear that we were on the wrong course. It was simply no longer possible or morally acceptable for a white minority of five million to continue to rule a 35-million non-white majority. We realized that we were being drawn inexorably into a downward spiral of conflict and isolation. We spent a great deal of time coming to terms with the realities of our situation and wrestling with the need for fundamental change.
For me, the key point was simply the realization that the politics that we had adopted and that I had supported as a young man, and had no chance of succeeding and had led to a situation of manifest injustice. I was a member of a cabinet committee that wrestled with the need for transformation. By 1996, we had accepted that all South Africans, regardless of race, would have to be accommodated within the same constitutional system. Having accepted the need to change, the next challenge to us was to avoid the temptation of pretending to change. Very often countries, companies and individuals, who know that they must change, pretend to change. They fraud themselves. Countries and companies will for sentimental reasons, cling to the industries that are no longer relevant instead of breaking through into entirely new cutting edge technologies.
For years, we white South Africans also fooled ourselves that we could ‘reform’ the system of white domination, known as apartheid, and thereby avoid the traumatic decisions and risks that real change always involves. My predecessor, PW Botha was a genuine reformer. By 1986, the government had repealed more than one hundred discriminatory laws. It had granted genuine trade union rights to the black workers, and had brought 3.5 million mixed populations, known as Coloureds, and 1.5 million Indian communities into a trilateral parliament. However, by them it was no longer a question of doing away with racial segregation. It was a question of power. The demand was not for reform but for a transfer of power following one-man, one-vote elections. It was only when we accept that we would have to take extremely uncomfortable decisions and risks that real change could begin.
The next challenge was to articulate a clear and achievable vision. On Feb. 2nd, 1990, I presented a new vision to the South African parliament, a new vision of the peaceful and democratic solution to our problems. I set goals that included a new and fully democratic constitution, the removal of any form of discrimination and domination, equality before independent judiciary, the protection of minorities as well as of individual rights, freedom of religion, and universal franchise. Within four years, we South Africans have achieved virtually all of these objectives. On April 27th, 1994, we held our first inclusive elections and Nelson Mandela became president of the country.
The following, Ladies and Gentlemen, are some of the factors that we had to consider when we undertook the transformation of South Africa. A key element was effective communication. We live in a world of perceptions, and perceptions are created as such by how we communicate as by what we do. For us, it was very important to convince the media and the world of our vision. Leaders must be able to encourage their own supporters to reassure them and to convince them of the need for fundamental change. Most people can deal with change, and are even prepared to make essential sacrifice. But they deal with uncertainty. Guidance is also crucially important in the management of change. It’s unwise for leaders to be vociferously right at the wrong time or to move so far ahead is the right direction that their followers can no longer hear or see them. History, markets and events move at their own pace, sometimes agonizingly slowly, at other times with frightening speed. Leaders must watch the tides and currents and must position themselves accordingly. I was often criticized before I became the President, for not racing out ahead of the pack in the pursuit of reform. Had I done so I would have alienated key players and important constituencies. I would not have become leader of my Party 1989; I would not have been able to do the things that I did when I was President.
Strong leadership is essential. History awards no prizes to people who have the right answers. The world is full of armchair experts. The art, in the first place, is to succeed in the very arduous process of becoming the leader. Only then can you really have an impact on events and steer them into what you believe is the right direction. History recognizes only those who have the ability to translate their vision of what is right into reality. A leader must have a weather eye open for changes in political tides and currents. He or she must also be ready to ride the wave of history when it breaks. After I became president, my hand was greatly strengthened by the historic events that were occurring in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. Change management also requires calculated risks. We realized that our decision to transform South Africa would involve enormous risks and would unleash a chain of events with far-reaching and unpredictable consequences. At times it was rather like paddling a canoe into a long distance of dangerous rapids. You may start the process and determine the initial direction. However after that the canoe is seized by enormous and other uncontrollable forces. All that you can do is to maintain your balance, to avoid the rocks and to steer as best you can, and right the canoe if if capsizes. It is a time of cool heads and firm, decisive action.
Ladies and Gentlemen, through effective management we South Africans achieved most of the goals that we set for ourselves in 1990s. We have an excellent constitution that protects rights of all our citizens and all our communities. We have rejoined the global community. We have done all this with surprisingly little violence and with the great deal of good will. We have experienced 24 years of economic growth interrupted briefly in 2009 by the global economic crisis. We are still confronted with many problems, some of them serious. During recent years our economic growth has been far too slow; our education system is not good; we have unsustainable level of unemployment and we are also one of the most unequal societies in the world. We are now experiencing also an unacceptable level of corruption; and we are still one of the most unequal societies in the world. We are now experiencing unacceptable levels of corruption. Nevertheless, with right policies we would be well positioned to achieve rapid economic growth.
We have the richest mineral reserves in the world; we have sophisticated financial sector and world-class companies; we have rapidly growing domestic market; and we are one of the main gateways to Africa which is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Our future in South Africa as with the future of everyone in this room will be determined by our ability to continue to meet the challenge of effective change management. However it is not only South Africa that has been going through a process of rapid transformation, there have been significant changes shifts in the distribution of planetary power and wealth during the past thirty-five years. In particular, there has been an enormous expansion in the role of emerging markets during this period. Although there is no universally accepted definition of which countries are emerging markets, they are definitely considered to include Brazil, Chili, China, Columbia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines the Russian Federation, my own country South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. These fifteen countries comprise 53% of the world's population and all of them have experienced impressive growth during the past three decades. In 1980s they accounted for only 15.5% of world GDP, compared with the 25.6% share of the Unities States and 34.6% share of the European Union. Today they produce 27.6% of the world's GDP, up from the 15.5%. While the share of the United States and the European Union have fallen to 22.2% and 23.7% respectively. All these I said had very positive impacts on the lives of billions of people. If ever there was a golden age in the long and troubled history of mankind, it is now. If ever there was a time when we could stop and look back on the great progress we have made, it is our time. At no period in the great and often tragic sweep of human experience have so many people lived in such relative prosperity, security and freedom as they do today.
From 1950s to 2011 global life expectancy rose from 47 to70 years. Infant and maternal deaths and deaths from tuberculosis dropped by half. That's real progress. All of these have been reflected in the steady gains throughout the world in the United Nations human development index which measures broad human progress in terms of income education and the health levels. Similar progress has also been made in combating poverty. The percentage of people living in absolute poverty, defined as an income of one dollar twenty-five cents a day in U.S. dollars, declined from 40% in 1980 to only 14% in 2010. During the past 35 years your own country China has also experienced a process unprecedented transformation. The economic reform introduced by Deng Xiaoping has led to the most successful enrichment of the largest number of people in the shortest period in history. More than 400 million people, more than the entire US population, have migrated from rural poverty to relative urban affluence. And there are hundreds of millions waiting in the rural areas to join them. Similarly, at the end of 80s, after four decades of independence, India finally managed to break free from restrictive economic policies. It is also reaping the benefits of rapid economic growth.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, at the very time when it was conquering much of the rest of world, Europe produced only 12% of the global GDP, compared with more than 45% created by China and India. That was in the 17th and 18th centuries. By 1913 following the European emerging from the industrial revolution, European share of global GDP had risen almost 30% while the combined share of China and India had dropped to only 15%. By 1950 India and China produced only 8% of world GDP. However, it has changed dramatically. It is expected that by 2060 China and Indian will once again account for more than 40% of global product and will have resumed the preeminent role in the world economy that have occupied for most of the last 2000 years.
The progress that mankind has experienced during the past 70 years has its roots in globalization, in this same period of relative international peace and in improved governance. Globalization has opened markets are everywhere to international trade and integrated worldwide production. It has been a major factor in bringing hundreds of millions of people throughout the world out from poverty to relative affluence. And good governance has also led to prosperity and social and economic progress everywhere. The requirements for good governments are not complex. Good governments protect the lives, property and rights of citizens. This requires peace, effective policing and a system of justice presided over by independent courts. Good governance empowers citizens by providing decent education and effective health and social services. Good governance encourages national and international trade and competition by creating conditions in which free and fair markets can flourish. Good governance is committed to accountability, integrity, responsiveness and elimination of corruption. And good government implements sound fiscal and economic policies and, in particular, balances national budgets. There is an absolute correlation between good governance and positive social and economic outcomes. Global prosperity has also been advanced by a sustained period of international peace. The 16 years since the beginning of this millennium have, despite the current conflicts in the Middle East been the most peaceful period in human history. Conflict deaths have dropped from 300 per hundred thousand people in World War II to about 3 per hundred thousand now. There have hardly been any wars between countries during the past decades. Nearly all the conflicts now take place between the religious, ethnic and linguistic communities within the same countries. Sometimes, as we have seen in the Middle East, such conflicts can become internationalized.
Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot say human progresses are done. Globalization is under threat from growing demands of protectionism particularly in the United States and the European Union. World peace is threatened by changing power relationships, by global terrorism and the continuing thread of nuclear weapons. Standards of governance appear to be declining as corruption grows and governments fail to maintain financial discipline. And then also change itself is changing. The whole process of change is accelerating. It is unpredictable and it is fundamental - it goes very deep. During the next 15 years, the world will change more radically than it's changed in the past 30 years. Factors that will contribute to this change include new technologies that will impact the society as much as the Internet and mobile phones have done in the past two decades. It will include enormous shifts in demographics with some countries unable to sustain their present population levels and others that cannot possibly support their rapidly growing populations. As we have seen, migrants everywhere are on the move. Shifts in geopolitical power relations as the developing countries challenge unipolar power and assert their rights to participate in global decision-making. And then we have climate change that may be more than any other factor could determine the future of mankind for decades to come.
This rapidly and dramatically changing environment would require a new generation of leaders, leaders who understands changes management and leaders who are committed to the provision of good governance. For the last 2000 years our species has flourished because of its ability to manage changes. 26 years ago change management enables South Africa overcome centuries of conflicts and to reestablish our nation for progress and prosperity. During the coming decade, our ability to manage change will be the key to future survival.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
FW de Klerk is the former President of South Africa.
Speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Dameisha China Innovation Forum. Opinions expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the position of SZIDI.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m here speaking from the most southern of Africa. It’s a great visit for me to be able to address today on the important questions of transformation and governments.
According to Charles Darwin, the success of species is not determined by their own strengths or intelligence, but by their ability to adapt to change. Because in this area, that our homo sapiens ancestors did very well. Not only were they able to adapt to the rapidly changing environment created by a succession of ice ages, they were progressively able to change the environment in which they lived. In effect, we humans became the only species with the ability to manage changes.
This is the secret of our phenomenal success. And it has led us to the point now where for most of our lives we live entirely in the environments that we ourselves have created-- our homes, our cities, and our offices. Our ability to manage changes continues to be the key to success today for individuals, for companies and for countries.
Twenty-seven years ago, when I became the President of South Africa, I was confronted by the need to change radically the direction in which our country had been going. I was often asked whether the decision that I took after I became president in September 1989, the decision to transform South Africa, was the result of some or other sudden conversion or insight. It wasn’t. Neither was it a sudden change of direction. It was, in fact, the culmination of a long process of introspection, a long process of reform that started in 1978 when my predecessor, PW Botha became Prime Minister. Introspection, having a good heart to look at yourself, and acceptance of the need to change are the first step in the process of transformation.
Resistance to change is deeply ingrained in us. In our cases, in South Africa, the whites and other minorities have well-based reasons to fear change. They were deeply concerned. First, about how they would be able to ensure that the reasonable rights of minorities would be projected under a majority rule dispensation. It must be remembered that the right to national self-determination had been the central theme of my people –the Afrikaners –history for more than one hundred and fifty years. We twice defended our independence against Britain, the mightiest empire of the time. The Anglo-Boer War (1899 –1902) was the biggest war that the British fought between the Napoleonic Wars and the Firsts World War. During the war Britain deployed four hundred thousand troops in South Africa, compared with the sixty-five thousand troops that it sent to U.S. during the American War of Independence. I say this because it’s important to understand my people, the Afrikaners, were a separate nation, and felt just as strongly about their right to self-determination as any other nation. So, firstly, how would they be in the majority rule of this nation to ensure that the rights of minorities would be maintained? Then second, they would concern about how the whites of South Africans be sure that the transformation of our society would not quickly lead to the chaos and tyranny that had characterized the decolonization process in so many other parts of Africa? By the mid-80s, there had already been more than eighty coup d'états in Africa and there was only a handful of successful and stable countries on the continent.
Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly clear that we were on the wrong course. It was simply no longer possible or morally acceptable for a white minority of five million to continue to rule a 35-million non-white majority. We realized that we were being drawn inexorably into a downward spiral of conflict and isolation. We spent a great deal of time coming to terms with the realities of our situation and wrestling with the need for fundamental change.
For me, the key point was simply the realization that the politics that we had adopted and that I had supported as a young man, and had no chance of succeeding and had led to a situation of manifest injustice. I was a member of a cabinet committee that wrestled with the need for transformation. By 1996, we had accepted that all South Africans, regardless of race, would have to be accommodated within the same constitutional system. Having accepted the need to change, the next challenge to us was to avoid the temptation of pretending to change. Very often countries, companies and individuals, who know that they must change, pretend to change. They fraud themselves. Countries and companies will for sentimental reasons, cling to the industries that are no longer relevant instead of breaking through into entirely new cutting edge technologies.
For years, we white South Africans also fooled ourselves that we could ‘reform’ the system of white domination, known as apartheid, and thereby avoid the traumatic decisions and risks that real change always involves. My predecessor, PW Botha was a genuine reformer. By 1986, the government had repealed more than one hundred discriminatory laws. It had granted genuine trade union rights to the black workers, and had brought 3.5 million mixed populations, known as Coloureds, and 1.5 million Indian communities into a trilateral parliament. However, by them it was no longer a question of doing away with racial segregation. It was a question of power. The demand was not for reform but for a transfer of power following one-man, one-vote elections. It was only when we accept that we would have to take extremely uncomfortable decisions and risks that real change could begin.
The next challenge was to articulate a clear and achievable vision. On Feb. 2nd, 1990, I presented a new vision to the South African parliament, a new vision of the peaceful and democratic solution to our problems. I set goals that included a new and fully democratic constitution, the removal of any form of discrimination and domination, equality before independent judiciary, the protection of minorities as well as of individual rights, freedom of religion, and universal franchise. Within four years, we South Africans have achieved virtually all of these objectives. On April 27th, 1994, we held our first inclusive elections and Nelson Mandela became president of the country.
The following, Ladies and Gentlemen, are some of the factors that we had to consider when we undertook the transformation of South Africa. A key element was effective communication. We live in a world of perceptions, and perceptions are created as such by how we communicate as by what we do. For us, it was very important to convince the media and the world of our vision. Leaders must be able to encourage their own supporters to reassure them and to convince them of the need for fundamental change. Most people can deal with change, and are even prepared to make essential sacrifice. But they deal with uncertainty. Guidance is also crucially important in the management of change. It’s unwise for leaders to be vociferously right at the wrong time or to move so far ahead is the right direction that their followers can no longer hear or see them. History, markets and events move at their own pace, sometimes agonizingly slowly, at other times with frightening speed. Leaders must watch the tides and currents and must position themselves accordingly. I was often criticized before I became the President, for not racing out ahead of the pack in the pursuit of reform. Had I done so I would have alienated key players and important constituencies. I would not have become leader of my Party 1989; I would not have been able to do the things that I did when I was President.
Strong leadership is essential. History awards no prizes to people who have the right answers. The world is full of armchair experts. The art, in the first place, is to succeed in the very arduous process of becoming the leader. Only then can you really have an impact on events and steer them into what you believe is the right direction. History recognizes only those who have the ability to translate their vision of what is right into reality. A leader must have a weather eye open for changes in political tides and currents. He or she must also be ready to ride the wave of history when it breaks. After I became president, my hand was greatly strengthened by the historic events that were occurring in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. Change management also requires calculated risks. We realized that our decision to transform South Africa would involve enormous risks and would unleash a chain of events with far-reaching and unpredictable consequences. At times it was rather like paddling a canoe into a long distance of dangerous rapids. You may start the process and determine the initial direction. However after that the canoe is seized by enormous and other uncontrollable forces. All that you can do is to maintain your balance, to avoid the rocks and to steer as best you can, and right the canoe if if capsizes. It is a time of cool heads and firm, decisive action.
Ladies and Gentlemen, through effective management we South Africans achieved most of the goals that we set for ourselves in 1990s. We have an excellent constitution that protects rights of all our citizens and all our communities. We have rejoined the global community. We have done all this with surprisingly little violence and with the great deal of good will. We have experienced 24 years of economic growth interrupted briefly in 2009 by the global economic crisis. We are still confronted with many problems, some of them serious. During recent years our economic growth has been far too slow; our education system is not good; we have unsustainable level of unemployment and we are also one of the most unequal societies in the world. We are now experiencing also an unacceptable level of corruption; and we are still one of the most unequal societies in the world. We are now experiencing unacceptable levels of corruption. Nevertheless, with right policies we would be well positioned to achieve rapid economic growth.
We have the richest mineral reserves in the world; we have sophisticated financial sector and world-class companies; we have rapidly growing domestic market; and we are one of the main gateways to Africa which is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Our future in South Africa as with the future of everyone in this room will be determined by our ability to continue to meet the challenge of effective change management. However it is not only South Africa that has been going through a process of rapid transformation, there have been significant changes shifts in the distribution of planetary power and wealth during the past thirty-five years. In particular, there has been an enormous expansion in the role of emerging markets during this period. Although there is no universally accepted definition of which countries are emerging markets, they are definitely considered to include Brazil, Chili, China, Columbia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines the Russian Federation, my own country South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. These fifteen countries comprise 53% of the world's population and all of them have experienced impressive growth during the past three decades. In 1980s they accounted for only 15.5% of world GDP, compared with the 25.6% share of the Unities States and 34.6% share of the European Union. Today they produce 27.6% of the world's GDP, up from the 15.5%. While the share of the United States and the European Union have fallen to 22.2% and 23.7% respectively. All these I said had very positive impacts on the lives of billions of people. If ever there was a golden age in the long and troubled history of mankind, it is now. If ever there was a time when we could stop and look back on the great progress we have made, it is our time. At no period in the great and often tragic sweep of human experience have so many people lived in such relative prosperity, security and freedom as they do today.
From 1950s to 2011 global life expectancy rose from 47 to70 years. Infant and maternal deaths and deaths from tuberculosis dropped by half. That's real progress. All of these have been reflected in the steady gains throughout the world in the United Nations human development index which measures broad human progress in terms of income education and the health levels. Similar progress has also been made in combating poverty. The percentage of people living in absolute poverty, defined as an income of one dollar twenty-five cents a day in U.S. dollars, declined from 40% in 1980 to only 14% in 2010. During the past 35 years your own country China has also experienced a process unprecedented transformation. The economic reform introduced by Deng Xiaoping has led to the most successful enrichment of the largest number of people in the shortest period in history. More than 400 million people, more than the entire US population, have migrated from rural poverty to relative urban affluence. And there are hundreds of millions waiting in the rural areas to join them. Similarly, at the end of 80s, after four decades of independence, India finally managed to break free from restrictive economic policies. It is also reaping the benefits of rapid economic growth.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, at the very time when it was conquering much of the rest of world, Europe produced only 12% of the global GDP, compared with more than 45% created by China and India. That was in the 17th and 18th centuries. By 1913 following the European emerging from the industrial revolution, European share of global GDP had risen almost 30% while the combined share of China and India had dropped to only 15%. By 1950 India and China produced only 8% of world GDP. However, it has changed dramatically. It is expected that by 2060 China and Indian will once again account for more than 40% of global product and will have resumed the preeminent role in the world economy that have occupied for most of the last 2000 years.
The progress that mankind has experienced during the past 70 years has its roots in globalization, in this same period of relative international peace and in improved governance. Globalization has opened markets are everywhere to international trade and integrated worldwide production. It has been a major factor in bringing hundreds of millions of people throughout the world out from poverty to relative affluence. And good governance has also led to prosperity and social and economic progress everywhere. The requirements for good governments are not complex. Good governments protect the lives, property and rights of citizens. This requires peace, effective policing and a system of justice presided over by independent courts. Good governance empowers citizens by providing decent education and effective health and social services. Good governance encourages national and international trade and competition by creating conditions in which free and fair markets can flourish. Good governance is committed to accountability, integrity, responsiveness and elimination of corruption. And good government implements sound fiscal and economic policies and, in particular, balances national budgets. There is an absolute correlation between good governance and positive social and economic outcomes. Global prosperity has also been advanced by a sustained period of international peace. The 16 years since the beginning of this millennium have, despite the current conflicts in the Middle East been the most peaceful period in human history. Conflict deaths have dropped from 300 per hundred thousand people in World War II to about 3 per hundred thousand now. There have hardly been any wars between countries during the past decades. Nearly all the conflicts now take place between the religious, ethnic and linguistic communities within the same countries. Sometimes, as we have seen in the Middle East, such conflicts can become internationalized.
Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot say human progresses are done. Globalization is under threat from growing demands of protectionism particularly in the United States and the European Union. World peace is threatened by changing power relationships, by global terrorism and the continuing thread of nuclear weapons. Standards of governance appear to be declining as corruption grows and governments fail to maintain financial discipline. And then also change itself is changing. The whole process of change is accelerating. It is unpredictable and it is fundamental - it goes very deep. During the next 15 years, the world will change more radically than it's changed in the past 30 years. Factors that will contribute to this change include new technologies that will impact the society as much as the Internet and mobile phones have done in the past two decades. It will include enormous shifts in demographics with some countries unable to sustain their present population levels and others that cannot possibly support their rapidly growing populations. As we have seen, migrants everywhere are on the move. Shifts in geopolitical power relations as the developing countries challenge unipolar power and assert their rights to participate in global decision-making. And then we have climate change that may be more than any other factor could determine the future of mankind for decades to come.
This rapidly and dramatically changing environment would require a new generation of leaders, leaders who understands changes management and leaders who are committed to the provision of good governance. For the last 2000 years our species has flourished because of its ability to manage changes. 26 years ago change management enables South Africa overcome centuries of conflicts and to reestablish our nation for progress and prosperity. During the coming decade, our ability to manage change will be the key to future survival.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
FW de Klerk is the former President of South Africa.
Speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Dameisha China Innovation Forum. Opinions expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the position of SZIDI.
