Ronald Makeleni

Striving to grow and impact my generation for a better future, and live such that when HE appears I will be like HIM

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@Shadaya_Knight Congratulations to football

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@begottensun @molokele 👏👏👏👏.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@josiahmberi @tawandan1 We will be more than happy to engage further on this should you want to consider the opportunity investment for your portfolio.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

Mr. Masiyiwa is a remarkable storyteller. As he took us back to the 1990s, I found myself sitting by my computer in tears. The same fire I witnessed in him back then is still burning today. Undiminished, unwavering.

Listening to him reminded me why we fought, and why we must continue. I left that address inspired to deepen my own contribution to create jobs, to build sustainable businesses, and to play my part in making Zimbabwe a better place.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@TembaMliswa I read somewhere Botswana is considered kitting the animals with reflective collars, it may be a very good idea. Well done for the effort so far.

[LynneM 💕💝💎 @LynneStactia]

RETWEET 4 Genroll & Like ❤️ 4 Temba Mliswa… l want to see something… 📍

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

We are getting closer and closer. God being our source of ability

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

Together we achieve more. We are coming together to push the building of a church in Marondera.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

From Cash to Cattle to Growth.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

From Cash to Cattle to Growth

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@GiftTavengwa @LynneStactia Was on Zambia abt 2 years ago and the taxi driver who was taking me around mentioned this and said a lot

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@MaminiminiObert @tawandan1 @godKingFTM You can also send us an email on [email protected] and we will be able to start you off.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

So I joined Kantor & Immerman. 1. I had the privilege to work with Canaan Dube now of #DMH. We used to call him de Bourbon wechivanhu. He was a master in Court. He had the flair, the authority and the depth that I started admiring during my attachment when I watched him represent Simon Arch P/L against a charge for possession of precious minerals without a license!
2. Then there was a brother and friend, Selby Hwacha now also of #DMH. An unsung hero who selflessly represented the UZ students during the anti- corruption demonstrations and has greatly impacted our labour laws representing many groups of employees.
3. There was one of my mentors, Antony Eastwood. One of the sharpest all round lawyers I have ever met. He was critical to my development as a commercial lawyer. Got me to understand computers during the days we used dos commands. Introduced me to the workings of stock markets as I helped him review and develop the rules of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange during the Tony Barfoot years. This was before the Emmanuel Munyuki era at the ZSE. If you know, you know!
4. Beatrice Mtetwa. A friend, a mentor, a sister. A rare, fearless, balanced, kind, intelligent, articulate lawyer who has shaped the Human Rights Laws of our Country.
5. Mervyn Immerman, to me a fatherly figure who had an expansive network of high net worthy clients. He was the greatest fee earner of the firm. From him I learnt that common sense contributes more in the making of a great lawyer than knowledge of the law!
6. Harry Kantor was the father head figure who ensured that this galaxy of extreme talent with high egos and strong unbreakable personalities and characters remained cohesive. Honestly, I don’t know how he did it. Often we would have factions and alliances and we would be at each other’s throats. But he held it all together until the implosion in 1997/98.
7. Kervin Laue was my supervisor. A cool mind who minded his own business.
8. We were the young talents. Addington Chinake and I. Collaborating some times. Undermining each other sometimes. But always appreciating each other’s gifts and talents. Having been in college together, we knew each other very well and we respected each other.
9. Brian Kagoro, Learnmore Jongwe, Petina Gapa @VascoDaGappah and many more became our juniors at some point and they completely stole the limelight!!
10. All these characters shaped my growth and my ambitions.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

1. Now I must turn to how I created my competitive advantage while at Kantor & Immerman.
2. When the results for my studies in International Conflict Resolution came, I had a distinction. I was invited to seek a scholarship to pursue further studies. I was tempted. I called Professor Welshman Ncube. I hope he still remembers our conversation. He said, Tawanda, I would have liked to join Kantor & Immerman myself. But you are lucky enough to be there. Why would you quit such a job to pursue a Masters Degree? I idolized him and Pearson Nherere. So I decided to stay and develop at Kantor & Immerman.
3. There was a wave of Socialism during my college days and indeed when I started practicing law in 1993. Unions were strong. And Robert Owen’s 8- 8- 8 Rule was much talked about and practiced. I was in a field where all my competitors had law degrees. Some were even more educated and more experienced . Therefore I decided I would differentiate myself by breaking the 8- 8- 8 rule. If others slept for 8 hours, I would reduce my sleep by a minimum of 2 hours. I would invest the two hours in work and research. If others went home at 4:30 to rest or play, I would use those 8 hours to work and research. In the result, I had the most working hours. I wasn’t alone. Anthony Eastwood would also be in the office, working! At times we would work until the morning. Bad habits? Maybe yes. But it was a sacrifice I had to make. I needed to invest more than my colleagues and competitors in order to do better than them.
4. When I received instructions from a client, I would research all the relevant law before I even wrote a single letter on the matter. I would seek from the client all the relevant evidence from the outset. If I thought I could win the case, then I would initiate the litigation, often with a letter of demand. If I was in doubt, I would advise the client and I would recommend a settlement or that the client should forget about the matter altogether. With that approach, my success rate was very high. My clients’ confidence in me rose sky high.
5. My brother Selby Hwacha cheered me on. He would say, Tawanda, you must not just practice law, you must make the law! This was a call to innovate. To find solutions to complex legal matters. Indeed when I look back at the number of reported judgments with my name on them, I am satisfied that I did my part.
6. I started receiving commendations from my clients, from judges of the Supreme Court and from judges of the High Court. In a Supreme Court judgment, Justice McNally even commented on the quality of my presentation. When I retired from active law practice in 1998, the Supreme through Advocate Chris Anderson SC who was appearing against Advocate DeBourbon SC requested my attendance. The bench thanked me for my contribution to the profession. Those days, it was every lawyers’ dream to receive commendations from a bench of such quality.
7. I hope Tendai Biti will still remember the Freddy Goronga matter. I made an urgent Application informa pauparis after receiving instructions around 6pm to stop the eviction of Porta Farm Squatters that had been scheduled for 4am the next morning. We had an urgent Court Hearing before Sandura JP and Adam J at 9 pm. I argued that the right to life includes the right to livelihood. Therefore Government could not eject the Porta Farm squatters withought providing them with suitable alternative accommodation. I got the provisional order. On the return day, the two of us were summoned to Justice Gillespie’s chambers. He commended us for our performance and indicated that we could be the future of the profession. We settled the matter with the result that Dzivarasekwa extension was created to accommodate the squatters. That made us even more fired up.
Create a competitive advantage to out perform your competitors. Innovate to find solutions that address your clients’/ customers’ needs.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

The management of one’s diary is very important for any business. Many lawyers will be familiar with this, therefore I will not dwell much on it.
1. Every morning, the first thing you do is attend to your diary. You must have an IN tray and an Out tray. The trays could be virtual of manual. You look at everything in your In Tray and you allocate the day of the week on which you will attend to the task.
2. You pull out all the files Diarized for the day and you allocate the time on the day during which you will attend to the task having regard to your meetings and court schedules. You don’t go home until you complete the tasks for the day.

3. I followed this routine religiously. But what I did differently is how I planned my work and evaluated my performance. I grew up in the farms where my father was a foreman. In farms, we deal with biological assets. Time is of the essence all the time. Doing things right is not enough. You must do things right and timely. Thus you must have daily objectives and you must evaluate your performance against set targets on a daily basis. You must understand where you failed and the reasons there for. Any failures could mean death of crops or animals.
4. So I used to write my plans on little pieces of paper. My PA then and now, Mrs Moyo, would collect these and file them. My plans were based on my answers to very basic questions:
4.1 what did I come to work to do today?
4.2. What did I manage to do?
4.3.what did I fail to do and why?
4.4 how do I plan to correct my failures tomorrow?

Everyday and at the end of the day, I would carry out this evaluation. I continue to use this tool to evaluate my work and that of my subordinates to the present day. It has worked for me. I am so heartened that in the USA, DOGE is now calling for accountability of Civil Servants on weekly tasks. Please try using a similar tool. You could achieve amazing results.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

I would like to pick on a few illustrations that characterized my practice before I moved to the corporate world. I will be writing about the following during the course of this week:
1. How I managed my diary and the lessons learnt from my childhood that helped me develop a tool with which I managed my practice. I still use the same tool in managing my businesses.
2. The importance of networking and how my decision to be mentored and supervised by a lawyer who did not have a law degree changed my career permanently.
3. How we shook the Financial Services Sector and contributed to the collapse of traditional Finance Houses: the importance of understanding basic accounting and mathematics in a corporate law practice.
4. What or who inspired me to pursue Corporate Finance as a carrier: my role in the development of the ownership structure of the Joina City and the dual listing of NMB on the Zimbabwe and London Stock Exchanges.
5. My role in the Econet cases: an innovative approach to the pursuit of commercial interests while leveraging on fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Here, I will talk about Dr Masiyiwa, the Edison Zvobgo speech that made President Mugabe walk out of a Hebert Chitepo Memorial lecture, my fight against State interference with judicial proceedings, my encounters with the Legendary Dr Joshua Nkomo, how I learnt that when the powerful become corrupt, they lose restraint and they become brazen and shameless, the assistance we received from President Mnangagwa, then Minister of Justice that I will never forget and what made Justice Smith to conclude: “with friends like Chiyangwa, who needs enemies?” (No offense intended as Philip Chiyangwa later became more than a friend to me, a brother).

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

At Kantor & Immerman, Kevin Laue was my supervisor. His practice was predominantly debt collection. And the Debt Collection department then run by Bonny Marase was under his supervision.

After a few months of intensive training, Kevin kindly released me and allowed me to pick another supervisor if I so wished. I chose Mervin Immerman. Mervin did not have a law degree. He qualified in South Africa, but I don’t know how. He was a common sense kind of guy, but one of the greatest lawyers I have ever known. He had an expansive network of wealthy clients. Most of the NGOs that used to operate in Zimbabwe were his clients. Most of the foreign Embassies were his clients. Many commercial farmers, blue chip companies listed on the ZSE, Banking institutions etc were his clients. If a matter became legally technical he would go to Anthony Eastwood for assistance. If Anthony was not interested, he would hand it down to someone else or just neglect it.

There was a pile of neglected files. I ploughed through them and updated each of them. All the letters I did, I did in the name of Mervin. When we needed to apologise to clients, we apologized. Where there was a crisis to be handled, I sought assistance from Anthony. They would have a shouting match with Mervin first, but I would get the assistance I needed. Trust grew between Mervin and I. A couple of times his wife, Rhoda came in to appreciate what I was doing for Mervin. They both decided to build me up. Rhoda supported me from the NGOs she used to run. And Mervin started to build my practice, starting from the rubble of neglected files. This is how I met my future bosses, Dr Julius Makoni and Mr James Mushore both founders of NMB Bank. They were Mervin’s clients whose work was handled by Anthony.

Mervin let me tape into his rich network of clients. He let me grow and shine. He made me understand that a common sense approach to the resolution of legal disputes was the best approach. So I became a common sense lawyer first and foremost before unleashing my reserve of technical expertise. With that, I earned the love and respect of my clients.

I never charged my clients for hours spent on their cases. No. I charged for value delivered. I would push my cases to a stage where I could demonstrate some value delivered before I could render a fee note. Thus, it took time before I could bill for some cases. I would bill when I was sure that my clients would be happy to pay. I get annoyed with professionals who charge me for time, or who charge me what a tariff says. Be they architects, lawyers, accountants, engineers etc! I want to be charged for value actually delivered. If you want to have a happy clientele that would give you repeat business. Charge only for value delivered, not for the time spent on a matter.

Deciding to work under Mervin Immerman is one of the best carrier decisions I have ever made. Before two years were up, the partners of Kantor & Immerman kindly decided to offer Mr Addington Chinake and I a 5% partnership each. Earlier attempts to admit me first almost wrecked the firm. So the decision was deferred until we could both be admitted at the same time. So, before I was 26, I became a partner entitled to 5% of the drawings of the firm, before I could even pay for the 5%. A scheme was agreed whereby the 5% would be paid for from my drawings.

It’s not enough to earn. Money can easily flow away like a current. It is a currency after all. I was taught principles of saving by a friend and a colleague who was my junior at the firm, Nic Rudnick, the former CEO of Liquid telecoms and also a significant shareholder. He is a Jewish gentleman. And Jews are reputably wealthy. He said he started saving at least 25% of his receipts from when he was in school. He had bought his first car, a red Opel from his savings. He gave me my first practical driving lessons from his car.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

So I started saving. I was to later learn the same principle from one of the wealthiest Zimbabweans I had the privilege to meet, the late Roy Turner. I was introduced to him by Solomon Mugavazi at the time I was advising on the Kingdom Meikles merger. I was wealthy when I met him. He had no car. He used public transport and a bicycle as transport. He planted a coffee tree at his house in Alexandra Park because he felt coffee was too expensive. He boarded a bus to Mutare to buy the seedlings for the coffee plant! Yet here was a man who was a top 10 shareholder of most of the blue chip listed companies. He was the only man who stood between me and my takeover of Power Speed (Electro Sales etc) I became the second largest shareholder after him. But he wouldn’t sell to me. I had to divest. But I made a huge profit.

Roy Turner said the only job he had was that of a civil servant. But from day one, he put most of his salary into the stock market. He told me there is no IPO he didn’t participate in. And his portfolio grew and grew. He was worth hundreds of Millions in USD. From investing his earnings into the stock market and the money market.

I started saving money. I was schooled about the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange later when I was assisting Anthony and Mervin on the ZSE matters. Before then, I kept my money in savings accounts at banks. We kept and sold chickens. We grew and sold mbambaira and vegetables. We removed meat from our diet at home. Matemba became a delicacy. Vegetables and milk featured prominently in our diet. We stopped renting accommodation in town, bought a stand in Domboshava and moved there. We saved and saved. We have such a hunger of success. We shared the hunger with Mrs Nyambirai. And that made everything a lot easier. And our wealth continued to grow. Yet we led a modest life.

I must tell a story about what happened when I was building in Domboshava. I needed timber. There was a place called Woodrow Timbers near the railways at the corner of ED Mnangagwa and Robert Mugabe/ Old Mutare. The employees there offered me a cheaper price if I paid them on the side. I imagined the same thing being done to me after I became a big business person. I declined the offer and opted to pay the higher price. You live by the sword, you die by the sword! To quote our Lord in the Holy Bible, Whatever you wish that man would do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. You need strong values to build a good corporate culture.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

I am not an extrovert. I don’t drink. I go to church. But in the modern church, you make friends if you have something to give. Even if you give, most church recipients have a feeling of entitlement. They feel it’s their prayers that have been answered. They feel it’s God who has given them. And they say it in your face without regard to the sacrifices you have made to get to a position where you can give. In most cases when they borrow, they have no intention to repay. That explains why in Zimbabwe, a predominantly Christian country, a person like Mr Strive Masiyiwa who has sent hundreds of thousands of kids to school receives attacks and abuse instead of honor. Like he correctly said to me last week, in Zimbabwe you are certain to get more accolades than you deserve after your demise. Not during your lifetime.

For an introvert like me, networking becomes very difficult. You have to start very early. And you start by putting your best foot forward every time in order to get noticed and to prove that you are a worthy connection. I made some of my career defining connections when I was at University. Beatrice Mtetwa became an acquaintance because of her act of charity. But my connection to Justice DAB Robinson was earned. I worked hard for it and I earned an ambassador who always sang my praises in places I could not access at the time. Those praises would keep some doors open for me, some doors I hadn’t even knocked.

So I was in year one at the Faculty of Law in 1989. I was studying for an LLBS. We were the first stream to do an LLBS outright. They used to do a BL as a first degree, followed by a one year post graduate LLBS. One of the subjects we took was Statutory Interpretation. Our Lecturer was DAB Robinson, then a judge of the High Court. I am not sure whether he was on the bench at the time. But he certainly was in 1993. We were taking this subject alongside our post graduate 4th year Seniors.

One day after our exams, we were standing in the “Intellectual Circle” in front of the Faculty. Justice Robinson was there, talking to the 4th years about how badly the 1st years performed in relation to one of the questions. I distinctly remember my brother Elisha Moyo was there. Always fearless and vibrant. The genius Professor Madhuku would have been there too .. I now can’t remember. I did not agree with them. But the guys were so learned, a first year guy’s argument would have been drowned out. I decided to go to my room, write a letter to Justice Robinson, put it under his door, and leave for my rural home, kuminda mirefu kwaMahinduka, the area between Chiwundura and Lalapanzi. I did exactly that. The judge responded. The delivery of his letter to my residence in New Complex 2 was returned. So he went to Student records and found my rural address. He posted the letter with the intention that it would get to me before Christmas. And it did. I will post it below. Please read it. An important relationship was birthed. I am sure, though I don’t know for a fact that Justice Robinson had put in a good word for me with Harry Kantor at Kantor & Immerman. After I qualified, I would help the judge with a lot of research on corporate law cases. He is the one who told me that a good corporate lawyer must always have a set of Henoschberg on the South African Companies Act in his library. So Justice Robinson was one of the most important contacts I earned at a very early stage. From the start, I was sure to always get respectful audience from senior High Court Judges. The lesson is to leverage on your strengths to get noticed and to make important relationships.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

@WelBeast We will not win the league playing like this we are just not good enough