BOAF 2023 – CORPORATE LITERACY 101 with Ms. Thoko Zulu

It is not in dispute that corporate civilization introduced new relationships that are often not understood by all the actors in the artificial world arising from the interplay between the law and outcomes.

“Yesterday, I had no idea of what I was about to be exposed to simply by responding to Mr. Mawere accepting my invitation to join a group that I am part of that is hosted on the LinkedIn platform.

I was so excited that he had accepted our initiation and all I could think of was how I would benefit from this deposit to our group and was naturally curious to know from him what had provoked him to accept this invitation.

I could not resist the temptation to send a direct message to him and surprisingly he did respond.

This led to a chat that I will treasure for the rest of my life and the lessons therein.

What then transpired is that I received a surprise group WhatsApp call that included Mr. Darlington Nyika, who incidentally lives in the same city, I live, Bulawayo.

Unexpectedly, the discussion was focused on the affairs of a WhatsApp group, Business Innovation Group (BIG) that was created by Dr Raymond Chamba to connect and provide a platform for members to bridge to opportunities and contacts to solve business and value-centric and forward leaning problems.

I learned that Mr. Nyika had been removed from this group by Dr Chamba following a dispute regarding Mr. Nyika’s shares that started with the life and legacy of Cecil John Rhodes, the industrial and mining magnate who died in South Africa in 1902 but whose controversial legacy is a cause of so many conversations that are often linked to the idea of colonialism and its purported corrosive impact.

Mr. Nyika sought to add value to the group using Rhodes as a case study to highlight the point that Rhodes arrived in SA as a 17 year person and died at 48 but in between his value in helping shape and define the character and personality of CORPORATE SA cannot be understated.

Rhodes’ corporate legacy is something I didn’t know or pay much attention to other than my deeply held view that is shared by many that he was an evil and greedy character but yesterday I must admit that I was subjected to a fast track literacy course on this man in the chat.

In the quiteness of my time last night, I began to reflect on the content that I was privileged to be exposed to and could not help but register to become a paid up member of the BANKING ON AFRICA’S FUTURE (BOAF) – 10K POINTS OF LIGHT (POL) initiative to convert connections to community power to solve problems.

Rhodes’ legacy is not taught in schools yet his rich history tells us that what often divides opinions is ignorance and illiteracy.

I had no idea that his wealth has allowed more than 4500 gifted but financially challenged students to be educated at Oxford University his almer mata since his death in 1902 under a scholarship program hearing his name.

I also learned that he believed and invested in converting his contacts into a society that he termed SOCIETY OF THE ELITES or drivers and shapers or in the BOAF parlance POL who were in his words the JUNTA who were not intimidated by problems but who believed that the first prize of the lottery of life was civilization and that the English civilization was superior to other civilizations as a bridge to wealth creation and the protection of property generated through thrift and creativity.

He apparently knew that absent the rule of law, the difference between the affairs of animals and humans would be the same.

He also understood that with connections of 34k followers and 30k connections, a person like Mr. Mawere already has a bank of connections that could if organized and structured become a platform to share stories on what is required to convert the gifts of nature endowed in all humans into practical outcomes.

I had no idea about the link between the structure and order of the Catholic Church and Rhodes’ approach to his corporate ventures.

When I knew this link, I immediately registered to join BOAF and committed myself yesterday to use the community to pursue my own happiness and the property inherent in the pursuit.

I learned that visitors like Rhodes were human hustlers who came to Africa and other shores to live and break the bands that connected them to the places of birth.

Indeed, Rhodes’ remains are in Matopo Hills yet he was a proud Englishman in life who could not find any better place to be buried but Zimbabwe so that his life would and could provoke generations after him – black and white – to believe that one doesn’t need a balance – DAY ONE – to be successful.

I could understand that the ideology of Rhodes cannot easily be understood by challenged thinkers and actors who believe that a WhatsApp group can be the theatre to prosecute business.

By nature, a grouping of freeloaders will never mutate into a grouping of value creation.

It was instructive that Mr. Nyika whose ambition is to build a city within Bulawayo was so fascinated by Mr. Mawere’s story telling of how Rhodes and Rudd used superior knowledge to convince Lobengula through the agency of Moffat to grant a concession that was then used to raise capital through the agency of a special purpose vehicle modelled around the Dutch East India Company, the first company to be registered in the UK.

Rhodesia was born in the minds of Rhodes and Rudd.

History was made in as much as the history of a company like Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Private Limited could not have been possible absent the concession or licence granted by the courts of Zimbabwe and complied with by the government of Zimbabwe to operate a mobile network platform.

Lobengula by agreeing to sign the concession, may not have known that he had bridged the territory he had jurisdiction over into a Rhodes WhatsApp sphere of influence and this deal unlocked funds from the UK private investors to be used to build what was called RHODESIA or a bigger WhatsApp grouping.

Mr. Nyika remarked yesterday, “My approach to use knowledge to provide, ignite and inspire a new way of appraching problem solving was thwarted in the group with many cheerleaders who may not understand that grouping blind but vocal people in a small grouping would not alter the reality that it would have been futile for Rhodes to raise money in the then Rhodesia or South Africa but in England where the Dutch East India Company was registered and had set a precedent of bridging UK capital to the mining challenges in Rhodesia where God’s mineral balance sheet was deposited.

Mr. Nyika felt strongly that the irrational decision by Dr Chamba to remove him from a group of 600 odd persons was a blessing in disguise as it has now freed him as a member of BOAF to provoke, ignite and inspire the conversion of our collective connections into platforms to connect savings to structured deals.

He said: “It was instructive that Mr. Michael Tichareva, a participant in the BIC grouping, responded to my content add in relation to Rhodes by stating that the acquisition of SMM HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED’s (SMM) UK registered parent, SMM HOLDINGS LIMITED (SMMH) in March 1996 was a brilliant transaction yet he believes that a shareholder is the alter ego of a juristic entity as follows:

It is clear from the above that no shared understanding exists between Mr. Tichareva and Mr. Mawere on corporate matters.

If you have enjoyed the above and wish to join me in migrating to community power building, please inbox me on my contact details that I shared with Mr. Mawere.

I am conforted that I am not alone in living in ignorance for so long that I believed that what I knew was all that was to be known to shine and succeed.

If Rhodes could do amazing things, why CAN’T WE DID IT TOGETHER. TOGETHER MORE IS POSSIBLE. RHODES AND RUDD IN THE SAME WHATSAPP GROUP IS THE WAY TO GO TO SECURE THE AFRICA I WANT.

IF 30,000 DISCOUNTED BY 50% of MR MAWERE’S LINKEDIN CONNECTIONS OR 15,000 WERE TO AGREE TO INVEST $100 PER ONE UNIT AND 100 UNITS ON AVERAGE PER PERSON THIS WILL TRANSLATE INTO OF A TRANSFORMATION POINT, THIS WILL TRANSLATE into a new BSAC to capitalize the initiative.

I AM LEARNING: