By now, I expect that many of us are well acquainted with the expansive list of assets that Zimbabwe’s Minister of Local Government and his wife are fighting over in their divorce trial.  For the most part, people have been outraged by the flagrant excess and insatiable gluttony of it all and the suspicion is that it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

On my part, I have been surprisingly inspired by the whole episode. It is evident that over the decades there have been tireless efforts towards this vast accumulation of assets.  So encouraged am I that I have decided to share the pearls (or diamonds, if you prefer) of wisdom I’ve extracted.

- Have ambition and don’t settle for less. Why should you own only one stand in Borrowdale when you can have twenty, or be the proprietor of one company when ten companies are even better?

- Don’t get disappointed if you never get promoted and you’ve been stuck in the same post since 2000. With the right attitude you can still do well and get rich through the opportunities that your current job presents.

- Every part of Zimbabwe is important and deserves to enjoy development through decentralised investment initiatives. Next time you have some spare cash, consider purchasing a stand or two in Chirundu, Katanga Township or maybe even Binga.

- Just because you are a civil servant, doesn’t mean that you must remain as poor as a church mouse. You will find that there are substantial perks that come with your job.

- Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She will make public your private affairs, expose to all-and-sundry what hard earned assets you have, demand half of these and still expect you to pay her maintenance ’til death do you part’.

·    Next time you see a car with the popular bumper stick “My other car is a Mercedes Benz and I also have Land Cruisers, Nissan Wolfs and Hard-bodies”, don’t laugh; believe.

- If for three years your husband does not live in the matrimonial home because he is sorting out some personal issues, know that he is not coming back.

- Don’t be limited by your schooling. You may have doctorates in adult and higher education, but that doesn’t stop you from pursuing interests in mining, hospitality, farming, retail, real estate etc.

- With a large percentage of Zimbabweans with no access to clean drinking water, it is clear that work performance has no correlation in achieving success. You definitely don’t have to work hard at your job to amass great wealth.

This entry was posted on November 8th, 2010 at 12:12 pm by Thandi Mpofu and is filed under Activism, Governance, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.