WILLIAM GUMEDE: Cyril Ramaphosa would do well to follow Jacinda Ardern’s lead in crisis management
The president has to publicly empathise with victims by going directly to their families and communities
11 September 2019 - 08:33
President Cyril Ramaphosa should take a leaf out of 39-year-old New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s book on the way she used a mixture of compassion, visible presence and firmness during the country’s worst terrorist attack in modern history in March this year, to give direction, restore calm and provide hope.
In a national crisis, the tone set by the country’s leader will determine if the crisis plunges the country into free fall, increases divisions and compounds feelings of hopelessness, or if it binds together the nation in a new resolve to do the right thing...
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