S'Thembiso Msomi: South Africa is in search of answers. Since she is still a mere teenager, as democracies go, this should not be surprising.

The political turmoil of the past few years, coupled with the rise of the corruption scourge and the unsatisfactory pace of social transformation, has lit a fire underneath sections of our young nation.

Gone are the days of infantile innocence, when it was taken for granted that since we had "the best Constitution in the world", South Africa would be immune from the political and economic problems that had conspired to keep much of post-colonial Africa shackled for the last 50 years.

As democratic South Africa approaches its 20th anniversary, almost everybody is in agreement that we face a variety of dangers that could halt our development into one of the world's successful nations.

Initiatives such as the recently launched Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) and the Coalition for Freedom of Speech are a recognition of such threats and a realisation of a need for a vigilant citizenry that actively defends its rights.

In these times of trouble, we ought to be seeking answers and inspiration from the lives of those who helped chart the path to the democracy we now enjoy.

What could be better than the fountain of wisdom that is the mind of our iconic first President, Nelson Mandela?

His latest book, Conversations with Myself - which is largely in his own words - comes, therefore, at a critical time for a South Africa in search of inspiration and better leadership.

As US president Barack Obama writes in the foreword, this book "does the world an extraordinary service in giving us that picture of Mandela the man".

"By offering us this full portrait, Mandela reminds us that he has not been a perfect man. Like all of us, he has his flaws. But it is precisely those imperfections that should inspire each and every one of us," Obama says.

The current and future generations of leaders can learn much from the wisdom Mandela offers in the book.

Take the words he wrote in a 1975 letter to his wife Winnie Mandela who was imprisoned in Kroonstad at the time: "In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth . But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being.

"Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualities which are within easy reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life".

It is this kind of perspective that seems to be lacking among our leaders today. And unless they learn from the likes of Mandela, the future rulers of the country will be no different.

Such is the importance of this book to the world that its publishers have decided to release it in 20 different languages.

Pity, though, that not one of these is a South African indigenous language. From what we have been told, the book will only be published in English here.

While the commercial imperatives involved are understandable, I cannot help but fear that a great opportunity is being missed here: to make Mandela's great views accessible to a far wider South African audience than those who can read English.

Publishing some copies of the book in, say, Mandela's mother tongue of Xhosa, would have also helped advance the renaissance movement Madiba has been part of for most of his life.

Mandela hails from a political tradition which recognises that full emancipation and democratic participation cannot be possible without information being made available in the languages spoken by the majority.

About 100 years ago his political forebears, Dr John L Dube and Sol Plaatjie, set up Zulu and Tswana newspapers respectively, as part of the democratic project.

In a conversation with author Richard Stengel - which is recorded in the book - Mandela said of indigenous languages: "One of the things which I am looking forward to when I retire is to be able to read literature as I want, [including] African literature. I can read both Xhosa and Sotho literature and I like doing that ."

I'd be surprised if Mandela has been able fulfil this wish, as books in indigenous languages are very rare. The argument from publishers is that such books do not sell.

But who knows, considering his huge popularity, his book translated to one of the local languages may just fly off the shelves and spark a new publishing trend.