INSIGHT | Leaders who cling to power undermine democracy

Albert Einstein is reported to have loved the saying: “Doing the same thing and expecting different results is a sign of insanity.” This is the cautionary warning for any political organisation, especially when going to elective conferences as do the DA and theANCthis month. Democracydoes not die only in coups. It also decays in comfort, in the slow normalisation of leaders who cannot imagine the life of an organisation without them at the helm.

This attitude leads to organisational decay rather than renewal. And this is why I respect DA leader John Steenhuisen for opting out of contest for the sake of his organisation when he realised his time had lapsed. Across cultures and centuries, political thinkers have warned that power retained too long corrodes both the ruler and the republic.

Elections matter. Constitutional limits matter. But equally important is something less codified and more moral — a leader’s disposition to recognise that political authority is temporary.

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When leaders overstay their mandate — whether by manipulating rules, bending party constitutions or cultivating personality cults — they undermine institutional integrity, erode public trust and create fertile ground for factionalism, patronage and corruption. It is the mechanism by which a political system regenerates leadership, ideas and norms. Healthy democracies uses turnover of periodic electoral change not for spectacle, but to prevent stagnation and authoritarian drift.

When leadership becomes permanent, parties ossify. Competition weakens.

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