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When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day national shutdown in March, many South Africans rejoiced and congratulated him on taking decisive leadership in fighting the pandemic.
Magda Wierzycka, CEO of Sygnia, was not one of them. In fact, she was so angry that she decided to sue the government for this decision.
Speaking at a Brenthurst Wealth Management seminar, Wierzycka said South Africa was already in financial trouble before the shutdown began.
When Ramaphosa announced the closure, he realized the devastation it would cause in a country where most people are struggling to put food on the table.
“The next day I called Wim Trengove, the best constitutional lawyer in South Africa, on the phone and said, ‘I’m suing. I want to sue them, ‘”Wierzycka said.
“I want to sue the government for the violation of my basic constitutional rights, but more importantly, for the damage that this blockade will cause to an economy that is already very fragile.”
He highlighted the damage that the shutdown would cause, including rising poverty, unemployment, crime and social unrest.
Trengove, however, told Wierzycka that he is going to waste his money because the government is going to put corpses on the table.
Using a very complex macroeconomic argument showing that a lockdown is not the right strategy for South Africa was doomed, he said.
Trengove told Wierzycka that she was willing to lose, leading her to drop the planned legal case against the government.
While it decided not to take legal action, it remained open criticism of the closure and the damage it was causing.
He said that instead of flattening the curve, the lockdown simply delayed it and killed the economy in the process.
The good ANC versus the bad ANC
Wierzycka said decisive leadership is needed to fix the country and create an environment where the economy can grow.
This, he said, is not happening because the country has a coalition government and therefore suffers from total paralysis.
This coalition government, however, is not between different political parties, but between different factions of the ANC: the good ANC, the bad ANC, and the trade unions.
Neither faction has the upper hand, which means that all government decisions are a compromise.
Wierzycka shared a tough message to those who wait for the government to act: “The government is not going to do anything.”
She said Ramaphosa is not a decisive leader and is dealing with a fractured government.
People should talk
She said she cannot believe that society has accepted draconian measures such as curfews, preventing her from seeing her family and forcing her to stay at home.
“We comply, like sheep. I’m not a sheep, and I don’t think anyone has given the government the right to treat me like one. “
To fix the situation, Wierzycka said people should take to the streets like during the years of state capture.
Businesses should start talking too. “The business is silent. Despite everything that is happening, businesses do not speak, “he said.
“Right now, we should have a group of 20 of South Africa’s most influential business leaders making their way to governments and putting demands on the table,” he said. “Not negotiating. Lawsuits “.
Discussion by Magda Wierzycka
Now Read: Where Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka Is Investing Her Money
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