PALI LEHOHLA | A lesson on how to scoop a challenge with both hands

Leadership in times of transition can be a vexing challenge and can change the course of history. Succession matters and leaving no chance to leadership is not a toy thing. A former colleague with whom we served as directors, himself of corporate services and I of Bopstats in the then department of economic affairs of Bophuthatswana, was laid to rest last Saturday. Under then minister of economic affairs Ephraim Keikelame and secretary Itumeleng Mogami, the department of economic affairs had become a formidable force in the homeland. Completely gender-insensitive though at all leadership levels, the boys’ club was unconscious of this major deficit. Be that as it may, there was Tsukudu leading tourism, Malete who led leading trade and industry, Montshiwa Tlhale heading corporate services and I leading statistics with my technical adviser, John Kahimbaara.

Kahimbaara and I developed a strategy that introduced the term “statistics system” in 1992 in the homeland. This was the central feature of our thought process and became pivotal for the strategic shift that we pursued relentlessly not only under the Bophuthatswana administration but introduced as a must at national level. That became a legal basis for the Statistics Act and gave birth to the national statistical system (NSS). Dare I say this terminology might as well have been introduced and popularised globally. This nomenclature was untraceable in the 1950s to the 1980s editions of the Handbook on Official Statistics. It only emerged minimally in the 2003 edition and exploded in the 2021 edition of the handbook. I would therefore argue that the inclusion of “system” in the Statistics Act, Act 6 of 1999 shifted the discourse of official statistics from the notion of office to that of system not only in South Africa but globally.

Tlhale, who later became the secretary of the department of economic affairs after the abrupt change of guard in Bophuthatswana in 1993, is no more, and we mourn his departure and celebrate his life. He was born in 1945. He made an enormous contribution at the crucial time of the transition from a homeland government to a government of national unity. But this contribution was generated by the good grounding the department had enjoyed over time. In 1992, Kahimbaara and I had arrived at Exco well-armed with a document on transformation of statistics in Bophuthatswana, which was anchored on development of human resources and expansion of programmes. Secretary Mogami, an ardent scholar, could not hold his excitement nor could our counterparts. It was a breath of fresh air. Our programme and accompanying budget proposals were approved without any amendment. A new standard had been set for the entire department, and a new BopStats was born.

After the approval of the programme and budgets for the new financial year we rolled out the training programme starting in 1993. At that time in Bophuthatswana, President Lucas Mangope and his government were overthrown. The ministers were summarily deposed or had already fled office. Secretaries held the fort, but the ground was getting very slippery as the plebiscite was determining their fate as well. I recall that at the Christmas party held at Cooke’s Lake for the department, then secretary Mogami addressed us and pointed to the impending uncertainty and the need to hold steady. The moment was sombre. One of those moments was when the government of Bop wanted to outsource computing services, and Ernst Young was pushing hard to acquire the account. Finally, they succeeded and moved towards outsourcing. The seasoned IT team led by Mofaladi and Sehume, who were holding the fort so well running the IBM System 38 without fault, were under the yoke of Ernst and Young. They were pushed into being consultants, which they reluctantly but ultimately took, but it ended in tears. Sehume and Mofaladi left the ministry of finance and ended up somewhere in Joburg. We had to face Ernst and Young, who wanted to dictate software acquisition to BopStats. We sent them packing from the statistics office. They appealed to both the secretary and the minister. Kahimbaara and I stood our ground, drew a line in the sand and said no-one from anywhere in the sphere of government, let alone consultants, will dictate to the statistics office the software to use. Both Mogami and Keikelame realised they were facing not only stubborn but professional bureaucrats. We would not budge.

No sooner had that Christmas party occurred than the secretaries of departments got removed. The only survivor of this uniform decapitation was Tlholoe, the then secretary of health. That was a very sad moment, particularly for Mogami, with whom we had worked so closely and progressively in the department.

But all was not lost because Tlhale ascended the throne from among the four directors. Tlhale himself was a seasoned bureaucrat with a self-deprecating character that would derogate his big head. He would continue supporting the programmes of BopStats. He appreciated value and in the most vulgar ways lashed out against the excesses of bureaucracy. I recall one such moment when I had invited him to my division for caucus with the staff. He said if government had a car factory, it would ensure the head lamps are removed so no government car travels at night. Tlhale would continue supporting the training programme we had developed for staff during the time of Mogami. Statomet at the University of Pretoria laid a solid foundation for statistical capacity building, and Prof Dawie Stoker, the doyen of survey methods, a student and ardent admirer of Lesly Kish of Michigan University, was the lead intellectual of the team from the University of Pretoria. They would camp in Mmabatho for a week once every two months. During that period the office of 60 closed most operations and only Kahimbaara, Serwada and I would man the phones and handle the work of those undertaking the study.

Employees who did well at Statomet would enrol at the University of Pretoria on full-time paid study leave to pursue a degree. Tlhale understood the need for this approach to building human resources for the future. At one of the graduation ceremonies for the Statomet cohorts, he had to provide a speech, one the BopStats team won’t forget. As we reminisced on the complex yet smooth transition from Mogami to Tlhale after the rapturous termination of of secretaries, Tlhale remained steady and true to the programme. He narrated a story of people who, while walking in the dark, heard a voice that kept saying “tabola”, which means “scoop”. His message to the BopStats staff was, opportunity for learning is before you — scoop. As staff retire and fewer remain, they remember Tlhale’s speech, and scoop they did.

There are important lessons for our bureaucracy and the professionalisation of the public service. Political raptures can occur, but it is important for the civil service to scoop up knowledge and education. It is not only for scooping but for his empathy and ethics, in his self-deprecation, that we will fondly remember Tlhale. My two successors in that office were female, and one of them I found there in 1982 November after I fled Lesotho. There was none with a degree then. She was a beneficiary of Tabola, and scoop she did, retiring as a chief director. But I often mused with my wife about how Tlhale took a whole bottle of wine home after taking two glasses from it. He said to the rest of us, I will enjoy with Matlhale at home. Upon his departure we remembered how he scooped. The boys’ club mould was broken, and Tlhale contributed to seeing that through. We therefore remember him very fondly. May his soul rest in peace.

Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.