We were honoured to host well-known scenario planner Clem Sunter at a MasiSports event in Noordhoek last week, where he addressed a packed house of MasiSports supporters, educators and coaches at Café Roux on global and South Africa’s red flags and scenarios.
While guests enjoyed The High Road wine – referencing Sunter’s previous work and provided by Les Sweidan – he spoke about global flags, including the Leadership Flag and the lack of a positive relationship between the world’s leaders, which had fractured the peace dividend that has been in place since the end of the Cold War.
According to Clem, this and other flags pointed to two possible scenarios:
- The Friendly Planet: where new leadership creates more co-operative situation to resolve climate change and preserves globalisation rather than patriotism.
- The Guilded Cage: Where Nato and the West retires into itself and tries to defend itself against the rest of the world, inclusive of geo-political threats from Russia, China and others.
Of course most in the audience were particularly interested in what he had to say about the South African situation. Clem pointed to four flags: The quality of SA’s infrastructure; the 2024 election; corruption and crime; and the need to create an inclusive economy.
In terms of scenarios, he said that there were two:
- The People’s Economy: A more inclusive economy that focused on growing medium- and small-sized businesses.
- The Cautionary Tale: increasing violence, anarchy and civil war.
According to Clem, South Africa is at a tipping point between the two scenarios and that in order to prevent the latter from happening, all South Africans had to embrace and encourage a more inclusive society.
He further stated that the model outlined by organisations like MasiSports of rolling up their sleeves and making a difference in their immediate community, needs to be replicated across the country. An holistic education with sport, life skills and other passionate pursuits would give opportunity to the underprivileged. He highlighted the role of positive leadership at schools assisting the driving of models like MasiSports.
Thank you, Clem, for an insightful talk and a reality check on South Africa. The evening then buzzed with laughter, chatter and reflection.
