THERE IS NO MONEY TOO MUCH TO FINISH

From Zimbabwe last week, came the news that former President Robert Mugabe’s vast wealth, accumulated over 37 years of rule, was dwindling and dwindling fast.

Choice assets – dairy farms, mines and real estate, are falling into disrepair, their assets auctioned off to pay debts or been encroached on by squatters.

The story in the African Report entitled "Mugabe’s business empire, the death of a dynasty” was a bit extravagant (this was not dynastic wealth), but painted a dire picture.

People don’t believe it, but

there is no money too much to finish...

At the height of his power Mugabe was reported to have properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Zimbabwe alone and frequently flew abroad with his histrionic wife, Grace on shopping junkets, while his administration had reduced Zimbabwe from the food basket of the region to the economic basket case it is today.

Us mere mortals labour under the illusion that when money has been accumulated it does not go anywhere. That once we are rich we will always be rich.

A cursory study of history shows that this is not so.

A friend of mine is continuously baffled at “corrupt” officials who do not seem able to reach a point in their thieving ways and say enough. My attempts to explain to him that the only way they can sustain the loot is by stealing more and more, falls on deaf ears.

I have already shared with him the Mugabe story.

"Money is made and wealth is built by delivering value to society, the more people you can deliver value to the richer you can become....

From an employment perspective you would rather be working for a company that is delivering value to millions of customers than one that is delivering value to thousands. The former company if run efficiently should pay better than the smaller company.

From a business perspective you want to be fishing in the biggest pond possible. Small markets will only take you so far in terms of accumulating wealth.

That’s why Mukwano went into bar soap manufacture or Mulwana manufactured plastic plates, mugs and basins or why Sekalala went into chicken and the list goes on – all of whom except Sekalala would struggle in Europe or the US selling what they do here.

So once you have found your market the trick is to exploit it efficiently – earn more than you spend to deliver the product or service to market. In a competitive market people are not obligated to buy your product unless they recognise its value in their lives.

Compare this to the corruption “business model”. This model dictates that you reap where you did not sow.

"The major investment you make is the suspension or elimination of any qualms you may have towards stealing funds....

under your charge. Another investment would be enrolling in the network of like minded individuals.

Because there is no cost of money, so to speak, you can then indulge your insecurities by showing off that you have arrived, safe in the knowledge that there is more money where the money you got came from. 

The problem is that this model is not sustainable because  resources are not infinite and also because the network of like minded thieves will grow with time and you will have to feed them by stealing more and more. This will eventually catch up with the thief, either because they end up eating the goose that lays the golden eggs or they knowingly or unknowingly get on the wrong side of some one who can do real damage to the “eating” network.

Once the thief is kicked out of the network, as always happens, if they don’t die first, they quickly realise they can not operate in the real world where money has a cost and to make it grow and sustain the lifestyle they had become accustomed, to they need to apply themselves beyond dipping their grubby fingers in the till.

So what happens next, they find a way to get back in the “eating” network by whatever means necessary – at this point they will lap up their own vomit if need be. And if they can not get back in, they fight the network from the outside, but always ready to do an about turn at a moment’s notice if the “network”  changes its mind about him.

For the “network” to remain happy the economy they operate in, be it a country or a company needs to keep growing. This is critical because if it starts stuttering the “eating network” will not cut back on their eating, in fact they even pump it up further. 

"When you continue to milk the cow without feeding it the end is inevitable....

Mugabe is a classic case of how a country can be brought to its knees because the “eating network” has to be fed. It got so bad that they started preying on the productive sectors – commercial farmers, to sate their rapaciousness.

They become like the Ebola virus, killing its host regardless  of if it needs the host to stay alive.

What if Mugabe had negotiated with the owners of capital, got them to concede not too much that they do not kill their productive capacity but enough that his government would be able to spread the wealth around by providing public goods that would improve his people’s living standards? 

It would take longer – maybe decades to see real change, compared to the immediate gratification of grabbing a viable commercial farm by the network.

But that is not how the “eating network” operates.