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Home » Why Shamila Batohi has had enough with silence and a rotten leadership culture
Opinion

Why Shamila Batohi has had enough with silence and a rotten leadership culture

Silence, evasion and wounded egos expose a leadership class unwilling to confront truth and accountability, writes Sandile Memela.
Sandile MemelaBy Sandile MemelaDecember 16, 2025Updated:December 16, 2025No Comments
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Shamila Batohi walked out of the inquiry into Gauteng South's Director of Public Prosecutions, Andrew Chauke, after being reprimanded by the panel. Picture: Screengrab
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  • Silence is used deliberately as a strategy to evade accountability and protect entrenched power.
  • Public exposure strips away ego, revealing a leadership culture rooted in fraud, arrogance and moral cowardice.
  • Nation-building collapses when leaders refuse to confront the truth rather than acknowledge their own flaws.

Rebuilding the rotten core of this country, especially at the leadership level, is not going to work. It does not work because too many people believe silence is a solution. They find it easy to give the middle finger to whoever asks questions, retreating into arrogance and disrespect rather than confronting the truth.

Nobody is willing to answer honestly. Above all, nobody is willing to ask the right questions or to see things for what they are. When exposure comes, they choose to walk away, disappearing the moment they realise that the search for truth shreds their credibility to pieces. They would rather ignore the questions and the messages sent to the world, convincing themselves that avoiding further entanglement is a form of self-preservation.

So they avoid conversations, dismiss interrogation, and insult cross-examination. In a country that overrates individual human rights, they feign victimisation in the name of protecting their peace of mind. What we are left with is so-called leaders avoiding responsibility and, above all, accountability.

Exposure, ego and public humiliation

It cuts deep into the soul when you are exposed and paraded before national television as a fraud. Your face and voice are suddenly in every home, including the shacks of the poorest of the poor. You are not what you thought you were, and you have always known it. You have always known that you are nothing but a delusional fraud.

You tell yourself there is nothing wrong with answering questions or engaging with those mandated to ask them. They are not mad; they are simply doing their jobs. They, too, are not perfect human beings, and their holier-than-thou posture is not the real problem. The real problem is that this country has been led by frauds, gangsters, impostors, freaks and pretenders.

When confronted, they would rather ghost, stonewall, or shut down. They will not wake up, dress up, and speak up to tell the truth when they know they are liars. That knowledge creates deep discomfort in the mind and soul. At some point during interrogation, something snaps, and you behave like a spoiled brat accustomed to getting your way, throwing toys out of the pram as your confidence and pride slowly erode.

It becomes difficult to answer questions from people you know are no better or worse than you. You recognise that not long ago, you played for the same team. You attended the same gala dinners, participated in the same conferences, and spoke the same language. Now, suddenly, you have been turned into a sacrificial lamb.

Walking away from truth and justice

This is the moment when you rip off your mask. You pull away and growl as you distance yourself from a game that pretends to pursue truth and justice. Emotionally immature and weak-minded, you lose self-control, even though you have always claimed to believe in nation-building and principles of integrity, honesty, openness, truth and justice.

When the time comes to show your true self, it becomes unbearable. There is too much at stake — not for the group, but for you as an individual. Your ego is under threat, and without it you believe you will be nothing. You sit facing public humiliation, your image broadcast into every home, hurting while nobody seems to care or empathise.

So you shut down completely. You refuse to answer questions and simply stop talking. You are hurting. What you need is to weep, to let the tears roll down your cheeks, to be offered a handkerchief. But you have been abandoned, so you blink the tears away.

You must weep not for yourself, but for a country that has lost itself. This is a country rotten to the core, a country that has betrayed itself and now carries a rotten soul. It is led by men and women who promote and perpetuate injustice, inequality, poverty, and the absence of truth.

Accountability rejected, silence weaponised

As you watch those who play God and pelt you with questions, you decide to reject them and everything they represent. You ask yourself who they think they are and what gives them the moral authority to reduce you to this. Your mind grinds to a halt, your mouth dries up, your tongue refuses to speak. You drink water, pause, and drink more water.

They want accountability, but you have interests to protect. You cannot be the one who breaks the code. You reassure yourself that this too shall pass and that the bosses will protect you. This was never meant to fix anything; it was a game, a delaying tactic designed to create the illusion of action without exposing your soul or finding you guilty.

So you slowly detach. Your body remains present, but your mind drifts to the other side of the hearing. You know that a nation is not built, and trust is not earned, through disappearance and unaccountability. Yet you played the game by its rules, protecting powerful interests, and now the system is turning on you, ready to crush you as an example.

You were almost at the finishing line when exposure arrived. You should not be angry or emotional, but you are, because you are human — a weak human being. So you dig your heels in. You refuse to move, and, worse, you refuse to answer any more questions.

A country confronting its own reflection

Nation-building and self-renewal begin when one lays their soul bare, unafraid to reveal the rotten core of their character. That process requires acknowledging guilt and corruption. But the ego does not recognise integrity, truth, principle or justice. To protect itself, it shuts everything down.

Silence becomes a weapon. You refuse to cooperate with a system of injustice and inequality that you were once part of, a system that benefited you and others like you. So you ask why you must carry the blame alone. This feels like too much.

And so you walk away. They can do what they like. But they are not going to finish you off.

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Sandile Memela

Journalist, writer and cultural critic. He is a former Chief Director: Nation Building & Social Cohesion in the Department of Arts & Culture.

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