Opinion / Columnist
Celebrating failure
01 Jul 2011 at 04:41hrs | Views
JOHANNESBURG - In 2004 in Zimbabwe a number of new black owned banks were confiscated by the Reserve Bank under the pretext of them facing a liquidity crunch. In addition a significant number of prominent business personalities fled the country after being hounded by the authorities for externalising foreign exchange, a term that still confounds me to this day.
Companies were taken over and prominent individuals specified in an ill fated response by the government that was facing serious economic dissonance. Of course most of this madness has now been reversed but the scars of arrested development still linger on. Recently, a well known Zimbabwean merchant bank, Renaissance Merchant Bank or RMB for short, and its founder have also fallen foul of the system. I do not to this date, even after reading about 20 versions of the story in the Zimbabwean press, understand what really happened there; suffice to say the bank is now under curatorship and its founder is facing some tough questions.
What amazes me is the how so many people get excited and seem quite happy that others have failed. When the bank executives were fired and fled the country others celebrated their demise. In the case of RMB, most Zimbabweans I have spoken to seem to feel vindicated and claim that Timba, its founder, has been pushing his luck rather conspicuously lately. When companies were taken over I heard of gatherings being held to celebrate their failure. This has been a well known tendency by Zimbabweans where most are watching your success with envy while hoping that somehow you will fall - the Phd (Pull him down) syndrome as we know it.
It has also happened in the South African business world but is the worse within the political arena where the failure of others is cause for celebration.
The other day I happened to be with some colleagues when a former prominent Zimbabwean banker was seen looking rather humbled in his new status as an employee. The comments going around about him were quite intriguing. Most felt that when the former banker was doing well materially he would hardly greet them and would look down on them but now he is such a friendly chap. "As they go up they trample on you but when they fall they expect you to sympathise with them," was a comment that caught my attention. Is that true I wonder?
To those going through hard times I say keep the faith and remember that everything works for our good in the end. To those on the way up, be circumspect.
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Vince Musewe is an independent economist. E-mail him: vtmusewe@gmail.com
Companies were taken over and prominent individuals specified in an ill fated response by the government that was facing serious economic dissonance. Of course most of this madness has now been reversed but the scars of arrested development still linger on. Recently, a well known Zimbabwean merchant bank, Renaissance Merchant Bank or RMB for short, and its founder have also fallen foul of the system. I do not to this date, even after reading about 20 versions of the story in the Zimbabwean press, understand what really happened there; suffice to say the bank is now under curatorship and its founder is facing some tough questions.
What amazes me is the how so many people get excited and seem quite happy that others have failed. When the bank executives were fired and fled the country others celebrated their demise. In the case of RMB, most Zimbabweans I have spoken to seem to feel vindicated and claim that Timba, its founder, has been pushing his luck rather conspicuously lately. When companies were taken over I heard of gatherings being held to celebrate their failure. This has been a well known tendency by Zimbabweans where most are watching your success with envy while hoping that somehow you will fall - the Phd (Pull him down) syndrome as we know it.
The other day I happened to be with some colleagues when a former prominent Zimbabwean banker was seen looking rather humbled in his new status as an employee. The comments going around about him were quite intriguing. Most felt that when the former banker was doing well materially he would hardly greet them and would look down on them but now he is such a friendly chap. "As they go up they trample on you but when they fall they expect you to sympathise with them," was a comment that caught my attention. Is that true I wonder?
To those going through hard times I say keep the faith and remember that everything works for our good in the end. To those on the way up, be circumspect.
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Vince Musewe is an independent economist. E-mail him: vtmusewe@gmail.com
Source - Vince Musewe
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