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Opinionista

The spirit of Peter Matlare must live on

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Hlubi Xaba is a follower of business history and is an anthropologist of the boardroom. Hlubi, a nom-de-plume, is at present working with a number of corporates and revealing his identity at this stage could potentially unwittingly compromise the current or future business of people he works with. However, his identity will be revealed in future, and he has undertaken to write uncompromisingly, with the highest ethical outlook, always accepting the facts, as bitter as they may be.

His corporate life experiences are part of a historical record in business from which to learn

The horrendous Covid-19 pandemic storm has blown out the life of Peter Matlare at the age of 61. It is a massive loss. He still had over a decade of brains to share experiences and mentor an upcoming cohort of executives.

Matlare ranked amongst a cadre deployed to state-owned enterprises under President Thabo Mbeki. This squad proved themselves in state-owned companies and subsequently caught the eye of big capital invested in JSE-listed entities.

Matlare was part of this excelling group in the South African SoE leadership cohort that was never indicted of corruption. 

He ranked amongst the likes of Saki Macozoma, Fred Phaswane, Gloria Serobe, Reuel Khoza, Sizwe Nxasana, Thulani Gcabashe, Maria Ramos, Mfundo Nkuhlu, Raisibe Morathi et al that cemented their corporate experience through state-owned entities and went on to lead in South Africa’s globally respected and competitive banking sector. 

This cream of the crop had led as directors in-state entities such as Transnet, Eskom, Telkom, South African Revenue Services, the Industrial Development Corporation et cetera. This squad went on to lead in systematically important financial institutions such as Standard Bank, Nedbank, Absa and FirstRand.   

Like any doers, these leaders made mistakes in the execution of their duties but were never remotely accused of embezzling state resources.

Matlare led at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) , Primedia, Vodacom, Tiger Brands and Absa. Under his leadership at Primedia, according to colleague Dan Moyane, Matlare was committed to the world of business, and serious about strategy. When Matlare went to the SABC it was struggling but it succeeded during his tenure.

 During Matlare’s tenure at the fast-moving consumer goods company some investment analysts had initially praised Tiger Brands for expanding into the West African region but when capital was lost these people predictably did award-winning skateboard turns and went on to attack him for poor due diligence.  

The failed venture in some parts of the continent pushed Matlare into defensive mode and it somehow raised his temper when journalists and analysts interrogated him for waste of capital.  In serious business, capital impairments are scandalous.

As iconic investor Warren Buffet often quips, “rule number one is, never lose money and rule number two is never forget rule number one”. Matlare took big hiding for this. But the caning was unequal. Many executives in South Africa were never fired for getting caught swimming naked on their African safaris or forays into other emerging developed markets. Top of mind are South African retailers, banks, telecommunications companies etc whose CEOs were never pushed out for impairing assets in Australia and Nigeria.

When the chips were down at Tiger Brands, the Board at Absa converted Matlare into an executive director at Absa under the leadership of Maria Ramos. It was a time when Absa under Ramos had ventured deep into the continent.

Matlare was deemed a safe pair of hands to navigate on behalf of Absa and bank businesses on the continent. The Absa board had given him another chance in the corporate sphere when many in the chattering classes had amortised his contribution to corporate SA.  This was important because in JSE-listed corporate SA, when a black CEO falters it is rare that they get a life-boat. You just have to look at the number of former black CEOs that have never seen executive employment after mistakes. 

In the six months to end June 2020, Matlare had led a business that contributed 26% of Absa’s R40-billlion to  Group Revenue. In this period his business unit was top-line growing and profitable. It had successfully completed the separation of Absa’s “outside South Africa” assets from Barclays. 

His passing has robbed many young South Africans of much needed corporate experience lessons. BM/DM

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