Published in May 2022 by Penguin Random House South Africa, Magda: My Journey recounts the trials and tribulations of Magda Wierzycka, founder of multibillion-rand financial services empire, Sygnia Limited. It is a fascinating read for experts and laymen alike. I’ve brushed shoulders with the investment community during my career in communications, but Wierzycka’s remarkable story has well and truly opened my eyes to this complex and intricate industry.
I hadn’t known much about Wierzycka either, except that she is Polish and one of the wealthiest women in South Africa. I was therefore intrigued as to how a teenage refugee from communist Poland would later come to be one of the leading business people in South Africa’s financial services industry.
After spending her early childhood in communist Poland, Wierzycka ended up in South Africa 1983 at the age of 13. She couldn’t speak a shred of English upon arrival, but would later graduate top of her class at Pretoria Girls High and qualify for a bursary in actuarial science at the University of Cape Town. After her studies, she commenced what would be a challenging career in the financial services industry, which undoubtedly prepared the ground for her astounding entrepreneurial venture that came later.
In this accessible and highly engaging memoir, Wierzycka tells of her early life growing up under a communist regime, her family’s escape and relocation to South Africa, her early struggles in the male-dominated financial services industry, and how she became one of the first females to hold a managerial position. This section totally struck a note with me; I also worked in a managerial role in corporate South Africa during the '90s – the first woman at my then company to do so – and I absolutely related with her tales of trying to break into this boys’ club where women were expected to pour tea or else sit quietly while the men talked.
Later, she proceeded to start her own asset management company with a business model built on transparency and low fees, which led her to become an outspoken critic of corporate and government corruption, exposing wrongdoing and fraudulent deals in both the private and public sectors. Naturally, she made a host of powerful enemies, to the point where her and her family’s lives were in danger, and she was often vilified in the media.
Of course, Wierzycka also writes about the role she played in the leaking of state capture information in 2017. In Magda: My Journey she reveals, for the first time, that she hadn’t been the one who leaked the emails to the press, an accusation levelled by journalists involved in the leaks. No spoilers here, but her experience and how she managed to distribute copies of the emails to heads of trade unions, leaders of political parties, cabinet ministers and other public figures whom she believed would democratise the information, reads like a thriller.
During an interview at the most recent Franschhoek Literary Festival, she admitted that she is deeply concerned that a culture of fraud and corruption has become an intrinsic part of doing business in South Africa; and believes the biggest challenge is to formulate constructive ideas on how to change the current landscape. Still, despite her misgivings about South Africa’s outlook, she believes that this is a country worth fighting for, adding that it is not about the politics of the moment but about the platforms that have to be laid to create a voice loud enough to be heard, and that it is up to South Africans to make this a reality.
Wierzycka has many critics. The tallest trees catch the most wind, after all. Particularly if those trees happen to be women who dare to make their voices heard. She also has many admirers. One thing is certain, Wierzycka is a very brave woman. She is a shining example of courageous and resilient activist in the face of powerful opposing forces, and at the risk of public humiliation and very real personal peril.
The memoir goes on to reveal interesting aspects of her personal life, her family’s culture, life lessons, business principles, personal mantras, and more. The publishers weren’t fibbing when they sold it as ‘a fascinating story that will inspire you to speak out, lean in, break out, and ultimately empower yourself not only to survive in life and business, but to thrive’.
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