When a nation’s lies harden into “glue”, leadership faces a particular kind of test. In this provocative reflection, ALI SA Fellow Prof Busani Ngcaweni (Class X: Xseed) traces how deception in South Africa has shifted from isolated untruths to a structural feature of our politics and public life.
He argues that power “lies for a living”, that myths of progress, permanence and exceptionalism have masked deep material contradictions and that new fictions, from recycled swartgevaar anxieties to “white genocide” panic, are simply old lies dressed in fresh language.
Yet he also suggests that doubt can be a civic resource: when citizens begin to question the narratives that justify inequality, corruption and conspicuous consumption, they create the conditions for more modest, honest and materially grounded politics.
For leaders committed to ethical leadership and the Good Society, his challenge is clear: name the lies, understand whose interests they serve and insist that renewal is measured not by slogans but by concrete repair.
To read the full piece by ALI SA Fellow Prof Busani Ngcaweni’s reflection, “The Decay of Lying in South Africa”.
