WeeklySA_AdminINTEGRITY: In fractured times, safe leadership breaks us further. Courage heals, choosing principle over popularity, and unity over fear.
By Khulekani Dlamini
We call our country “fractured,” but fracture is more than division; it’s fragility – the point at which a nation can’t absorb shocks without splintering further. In moments like these, leadership that plays it safe doesn’t hold us together, it multiplies the crack.
The only leadership that heals chooses principle over popularity and risk over routine. That courage is measurable: it rebuilds trust, protects those who speak up and puts the common good above comfort. When history is heavy, institutions are brittle, and hope is thin. Courageous leaders are those that can stop widening the gap and start setting the break so we can walk forward together.
Defining a Fractured Nation
A fractured nation is one where the cracks of history, inequality and distrust run deeper than the bridges a society has built. It is when the threads that weave the fabric of our society, holding us together, have been weakened by deep divisions and can no longer carry the same weight. Fracture doesn’t just mean division, it means a fragility that cannot withstand any shocks. You know a nation is fractured when its people stop believing they belong to the same story.
These fractures can take several forms:
Historical fractures – unresolved wounds from past injustices that continue to shape identity and belonging. I am reminded of Eckhart Tolle’s talk of pain bodies that drive heritage or memory/remembrance. These amorphous bodies guide what we remember and whom we define as heroes and villains.
Social fractures – widening inequality, loss of trust in institutions, and broken social cohesion between different groups, cultures, or classes. Life and meaning-making in this instance, focuses more on contestation than collaboration.
Political fractures – polarization, corruption and leadership voids that undermine collective purpose. The othering of those that believe differently, creates deep fissures and the mindset of scarcity, where all that is for the collective, ends up in the hands of the powerful few.
Economic fractures – exclusion, unemployment, generational poverty and limited upward mobility for large portions of the population. This creates a despondency that permeates even structures like policing, allowing for a further widening of social fractures.
Psychological fractures – widespread disillusionment, anger and hopelessness that erode resilience and optimism. This is arguably, the most dangerous fracture because a society without hope, can be quite unpredictable as they grasp for hope wherever they can.
In essence, a fractured nation is not just divided – it is fragile, and its ability to unite around a common future is impaired.
What is Courageous Leadership?
Courageous leadership is the deliberate choice to lead with integrity, conviction and empathy in the face of fear, resistance or grave risk. It’s not the absence of fear – it’s the willingness to act despite fear. Guiding characteristics typically include:
Moral clarity – standing for what is right, not what is popular or expedient. This is infamously hard to do — the natural inclination for all humans is to seek safety and belonging, not isolation.
Empathy and inclusivity – listening to voices on the margins, building bridges across divides, and affirming human dignity. Political expediency seeks engagement with powerful collectives, which is typically not made up of ordinary citizens.
Resilience and accountability – holding oneself and others to a high standard, even when it’s uncomfortable. This requires an enormous amount of self knowledge and belief, something not commonly found in political leadership.
Visionary action – articulating a hopeful, shared future and mobilizing people toward it, even when the path is uncertain. What we don’t often see are the fragile gambles lived in real time by courageous leaders. History often edits out the tremor in their hand, the doubt in their hearts, the risk in the moment. They are not free of uncertainty, they choose to act despite it.
Sacrifice – putting the collective good above personal comfort, reputation, or even safety. In our context – the danger when it comes to safety is present, imminent and grave, as we have seen in the assassinations of whistleblowers in our country.
Courageous leadership therefore, is not the absence of fear – it’s the decision to act for the greater good, even when fear is present.
The Intersection: Courageous Leadership in a Fractured Nation
True courage in leadership is choosing principle over popularity, and purpose over personal comfort. Courageous leaders don’t exploit divisions; they step into the fractures to heal them because in a fractured nation, leadership without courage only deepens the cracks.
In fractured contexts, leadership is often about:
Remaining steadfastly focused on creating trust. In the Trusted Advisor, Maister, Galford and Green define trust as the sum of Credibility (being qualified to do a job), Reliability (being capable of/doing the job) and Intimacy (being relatable), all divided by Self interest. You want diligent leaders that are capable, accessible and act for the greater good. Speaking hard truths to power, while still offering a path forward. Pessimists are a dime a dozen and are driven by vanity in their utterances and not the intention to make positive change.
Choosing unity over exploitation of divisions. Unity is simple; division is complex. We are often afraid of doing the simple things because they do not make us look smart. Complexity on the other hand, gives us busy work and makes us look and feel smart. Restoring trust in institutions and in one another. Institutions are a great leveller. A billionaire and a pauper are seen in the same light by functional institutions. It is this, which creates safety and belonging.
Taking risks to reimagine what a nation can become. We see sparks of unity when we win some collective sport of preference. A guiding vision of a winning nation, can reverse psychological fractures, creating belonging and unity of purpose.
Leading from values that heal rather than policies that further entrench wounds. Never forgetting lessons of history is important but it should be paired with an environment where we all assume positive intent from each other.
Our fractures don’t need more blame; they need leaders bold enough to imagine a different future, and brave enough to act on it. When leaders respond with silence, self-preservation, or short-term populism, these are negative multipliers — they deepen the cracks instead of closing them.
When we say a nation is fractured, we’re not only talking about politics or economics. A fractured nation is one where inequality, mistrust, and historical wounds pull harder than the forces that should unite us. It’s when people stop believing they belong to the same story. Fracture is fragility — and fragility is dangerous if left unattended.
In times like these, leadership that plays it safe is actually leadership that multiplies the fracture. Neutral or negative multipliers — things like silence in the face of injustice, indecision when clarity is needed, or protecting self-interest over the common good — only deepen the cracks.
Courageous leadership is about choosing a different multiplier. It is the willingness to be a positive, sometimes even an exponential multiplier — to stand for principle over popularity, to act when fear is present, and to enter the fractures not to exploit them, but to heal them. Courage is contagious; it inspires, it mobilizes, and it multiplies trust where distrust has taken root.
In a fractured nation, courageous leaders are those who resist the temptation to widen divides for short-term gain, and instead risk their comfort, their reputation, even their power to restore unity. They don’t just manage the cracks — they imagine a future beyond them and invite us all to build it together.
• Khulekani Dlamini is the Executive Chairperson of the KD Group, Managing Partner of Lwembu Ecosystem Ventures and an Advisory Board Member to the Stellenbosch Business School.
