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26 November 2018 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Barend Nagel
Book Launch read more
Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace is about a kind of leadership that puts peace first.

A young democracy such as South Africa is defined by a desire for better relationships, interconnectedness, inclusivity, cohesion, justice and a shared understanding. 
Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace offers a practical framework for all leaders, as well as for the average person on the street, on how to achieve this aspiration. 

A desire for peace

“It is every human’s desire to experience peace and to facilitate that peacefulness we need peace leaders.” The book offers strategies which leaders can apply to maintain and restore peace in conflict-ridden regions such as Bosnia, according to Martha Harunavamwe of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Industrial Psychology, who contributed two chapters to the book. The text also offers peace strategies to communities outside conflict-ridden regions. 

The written work explores ways in which the 21st century leader has the power to influence a nation towards or away from peace, the possibilities of restoring relationships, as well as how social systems can be tailored in the best interest of citizens for the purpose of conflict resolution.

The building blocks

Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace is built upon a three-phase foundation. “Moving through different phases, leading self, leading with others and leading your community will enhance self-transformation to the creation of peace.” 

Through cycles of action, reflection, learning and adaptation, peace leaders will improve on efforts to obtain peace,” said one of the editors and author of seven chapters, Prof Ebben Van Zyl. These building blocks model a more civilised and flourishing world in which the financial, political, health and education, human security, and legal needs of the community are served, thus creating a peaceful society.

Prof Van Zyl who is also from the Department of Industrial Psychology, edited the book, with Dr Andrew Campbell of the International Peace and Leadership Institute in the US.

Leaders are in the eye of the beholder

Two chapters of the book were written from a governance perspective. In her contribution, Prof Liezel Lues of the UFS Department of Public Administration states that there are large communities of peace leaders, considering they encompass all those who contribute towards nation-building, be they politicians, singers, actors, or business owners.

The importance of peace leaders should never be underestimated. If anything, scholar-practitioners, educators, academics, researchers, leadership development fraternities, peace organisations, negotiators, think-tanks, the diplomatic corps, government institutions, non-governmental organisations, consultants or advisors, security companies, the private sector and trade unions, should strive to become fluent in the concepts advocated for in Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace.

News Archive

Valour inspires book on community protests
2016-10-18

Description: Dr Matebesi book cover Tags: Dr Matebesi book cover

The cover of Dr Sethulego Matebesi’s
book, Civil strife against local governance:
Dynamics of community protests in
contemporary South Africa, that will be
released on 1 November 2016.
Photo: Supplied

Two significant political events: the murder of an unarmed protester, and school children forced out of school sparked the idea to write a book on community protests.
The book, Civil strife against local governance: Dynamics of community protests in contemporary South Africa, by Dr Sethulego Matebesi, gives an academic account of service delivery protests in South Africa.

Research address protests in different communities
“The focus of my book is on community protests directed against municipalities in both predominantly black and white communities,” Dr Matebesi, senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State, said. The funding for the book was received from the National Research Foundation and the Erasmus Mundus EU-Saturn Scholarship.

Informs literature on service delivery protests

The struggle against municipalities reaches across geographic and demographic boundaries, but the violent turn of protests in black communities in contrast to white communities has become somewhat of a hegemonic account by scholars. “The book connects the critical issue of community protests with the equally precarious issue of political trust in local government,” Dr Matebesi said. Case studies in the book are indicative of significant shifts in community protest – thus making it timely. Dr Matebesi said: “The book informs the growing literature on community protests and also fills an empirical void by including protesters in residents’ associations.”

“The book is a personal milestone and
the single greatest return on the
sacrifices made over the past 4 years.”





Personal milestone worth the sacrifice
Research was conducted between 2012 and 2015, whereby two case study sites were selected in four provinces to account the different tactics used. “The book is a personal milestone and the single greatest return on the sacrifices made over the past four years,” Dr Matebesi said.

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