Farewell to Prof Dean Rossouw on Behalf of the Ethics Institute Board of Directors
by Dr RJ Khoza - 25 April 2024
Colleagues have already commendably bid farewell to our esteemed colleague and TEI CEO of more than a decade’s standing. As I come in at the tail-end of this wonderful valedictory party, mine is to echo and accentuate our deep sense of gratitude to Prof Deon Rossouw. Our gratitude is inexorably extended to Deon’s family which must have provided the bedrock on which his successful life is based.
We are ecstatic to celebrate Deon’s remarkable life career and profound contribution to the Ethics Institute. We consider ourselves blessed to have rubbed shoulders with greatness as embodied in the person and personality of Deon Rossouw: a gifted student, an outstanding scholar with several cum laudes to his name, philosopher, theologian and promoter of doctoral students. All in one life. One of my memorable interfaces with Deon was as fellows of the King Code Council where we co-crafted, the mnemonic device ICRAFT for Integrity, Competence, Responsibility, Accountability, Fairness and Transparency as governance guiding principles. Of course a good number of companies I had the pleasure of leading benefitted a great deal from the Ethics Institute’s training sessions facilitated by Deon.
The great humanitarian and Nobel Prize winner Alfred Schweizer, opined: I don’t know what our destiny will be, but one thing I do know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
Deon has accomplished this with distinction and quintessential conscientiousness.
Conscientious, that is to say responsible, empathetic, responsive leaders, in addition to their strong analytical, emotional, spiritual and socio-systemic intelligence, are keenly aware of the significance of service in helping their nations or organisations realise their highest potential. In essence they know that genuine service to (their) followers – service to others, leads to more personal accomplishment.
Many amongst us will concur with George Eberhard that, “The vital force in business life is the honest desire to serve. Business it is said, is the science of service. He profits most who serves best. At the very bottom of the wish to render service must be honesty or purpose, and as I go along through life, I see more and more that honesty in word, thought and work means success! It spells a life worth living and in business clean success.”
Responsible and responsive – and might I add accountable, fair and transparent leadership is anchored on a sound / wholesome value system; attuned to its time through its sense of historical mission; resonating with the needs and aspirations of its followership, and harkening to its beckoning sense of destiny, was in our opinion Deon’s true north.
Of Deon, Confucious would have the following to say:
“There are three marks of the superior man: being virtuous, he is free from anxiety; being wise, he is free from perplexity; being brave, he is free from fear.”
Adieu Deon, you will be sorely missed. We wish you only the very best as you embark on what must be the next phase of your odyssey of excellence.