28 May 2014
Good session in Joburg this morning for Dimension Data on “Your Future Fitness as a Leader & Transforming your Organisation”. Tonight I fly to Zimbabwe – beautiful land of my birth – to speak at a CSR and CSV Indaba. I look forward to unmasking elephants in the room.
RIP Maya Angelou – you inspired many and will continue to empower through your words. And still we rise!
30 May 2014
En route Harare-Joburg-Cape Town. After my parachute-in visit to Zimbabwe – arriving in the dark and leaving the dark – I come away with a few impressions.
Power supply is intermittent, with many street lights, and even airport terminal lights, either turned off or not working. The two nights I stayed – in a hotel and a lodge – were both without the luxury of hot water. Roads in the city lack maintenance, but are by no means undriveable. The mood swings between hope and pessimism, but the general feeling is of being let down by government. The biggest immediate problem seems to be a liquidity crisis, including government employees being paid late for the past three months.
Despite all this, the people I met at the conference I was speaking at all displayed great pride in being Zimbabwean, and especially their ability to survive and adapt. This is a country that has been through decades of breakdown, and the result is remarkable resilience. As I commented to one of the delegates, these survival skills may be in premium demand in future as the rest of the world enters decades of increasing volatility and crisis.
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