How Citizen Leader Lab’s women principals are catalysing care to dismantle injustice
Care, as a leadership quality, has long been underestimated: Brushed off as soft, secondary, patronisingly feminine.
But women principals in our schools are proving that care is anything but.
On International Women’s Day, under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,” their stories call for acknowledgement.
Care that disrupts neglect
Principal Elizabeth Nakampi, a Citizen Leader Lab alumna, inherited Lehwelereng Secondary in 2022, at a time when the Hammanskraal school was struggling with poor mathematics results, substance abuse and absent parents. She could have let these crises define her. Instead, she turned care into disruption.
Guided by Citizen Leader Lab’s leadership practices, she listened, consulted and mobilised the school’s stakeholders. Parental involvement jumped from 40% to 70%. Matric pass rates climbed past 90% and substance abuse declined. Beyond academics, Nakampi’s care translated into practical change: A vegetable garden to feed learners, health screenings, a maths hub and clean water from a borehole.
Collective care, collective disruption
At Hans Kekana Secondary, also in Hammanskraal, Citizen Leader Lab alumna, Principal Matshidiso Thobejane, faced a community scarred by unemployment and HIV/AIDS. Many learners were growing up in child-headed households, and the school’s pass rate had collapsed to 55%.
Her disruption was elegant in its simplicity: “How can we improve together?” Using leadership strategies honed through Citizen Leader Lab, teachers volunteered extra hours, parents stepped in and the community rallied. Within two years, the pass rate had soared to 94.6%, demonstrating how care, applied strategically, can transform a school and its community.
Care that restores dignity
For Nokuthula Sibisi, the late principal of Sogidi Primary in KwaZulu-Natal and a Citizen Leader Lab alumna, care meant refusing to normalise indignity. Her learners were forced to use dangerous pit latrines. Her vision was clear: Eradicate them for good.
Leveraging relationships built through Citizen Leader Lab, Sibisi mobilised support to secure safe, dignified sanitation facilities for learners.
Her care confronted and disrupted decades of indifference.
Mutual care, mutual disruption
For Dr Rochelle Davids, principal of St Theresa’s RC Primary in Cape Town, care meant learning to set boundaries. Partnered with Standard Bank executive Hailey Harper, she discovered that saying ‘’no’’ was an act of self-respect. Harper, in turn, gained a deeper appreciation for the immense responsibility public school principals carry.
Their partnership was built on mutual care: Each offered encouragement and perspective and each experienced transformation. There was care in reciprocity, disrupting traditional mentorship hierarchies.
Disruption that expands
Having progressed from school principal to circuit manager, Citizen Leader Lab alumna, Debbie Jeptha, now mentors other school principals, propagating a culture of collaborative leadership across schools. Her disruption is systemic: Opposed to hoarding leadership and power, she multiplies it through care.
Justice through care
Justice is not abstract. It is embodied in the daily work of women school principals challenging inequity in South Africa’s schools.
Justice is when pit latrines are replaced with safe facilities, restoring dignity to learners. Justice is when parents, once disengaged, become active partners in education. Justice is when women leaders, long overlooked, are recognised as the strategic visionaries they are. And it’s care that makes justice tangible.
This is the work Citizen Leader Lab has supported since 2010. By partnering with over 2,000 school principals, including nearly 1,000 women school principals across South Africa’s nine provinces, Citizen Leader Lab channels care into leadership and system change. Each partnership between a school principal and business leader impacts more than 25 teachers and 800 learners.
Care, boldly
Citizen Leader Lab’s women principals are proving that care can mobilise communities, transform schools and build futures. They show us that when we give time, trust, resources and recognition, we gain justice, dignity and hope.
So, here’s the challenge this International Women’s Day: Support a world where care is power, claimed unapologetically by women leaders. It’s a radical redefinition of leadership for a just future.