Unisa online - UNISA's SBL honours Ramaphosa with prestigious LIP award

The UNISA School of Graduate and Business Leadership (SBL) has awarded businessman Cyril Ramaphosa the Leadership in Practice (LIP) award in recognition of his outstanding achievements. Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad and other dignitaries attended the Leadership in Practice gala dinner at Emperor's Palace on 9 April 2008.

During a media conference prior to the dinner, Ramaphosa was quizzed on the leadership crises in Southern Africa. He replied saying leadership always faced challenges and he firmly believed that there were always solutions. In responding to a question on what advice he would give to young and older people faced with deciding on their future or what changes to make, he said "everyone had a gift and it was important to discover that gift, no matter what it was 'it could be digging trenches', and to do it with passion and to the best of one's ability".

Ramaphosa remarked that as one went through life one tended to develop other gifts and the same applied: use the gift to the best of one's ability. Other comments he made included the fact that keeping talented black staff posed a difficulty in any organisation as they were being headhunted not just by South African organisations, but also by overseas recruiters. He said efforts had to be made to find ways to keep such staff and it would require a lot of innovative thought to do so.