Magda Wierzycka reveals Polish Jewish connections

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

“I heard only when I arrived in South Africa and my father decided to break the huge family secret,” the chief executive of asset management company Sygnia said at a Bnoth Zion WIZO Gilah branch personality tea at the Hellenic Sports Club in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The country’s leading businesswoman, who arrived as a 13-year-old refugee in the 1980s, now runs a fintech company with R1.8 billion in assets under management and administration.

Born into a prosperous family in Lvov in 1970, Wierzycka regarded her first 12 years as “fairly idyllic”.

In spite of having Jewish family, she learnt about Judaism through her first boyfriend. “He was a very observant Jewish guy, and I learned everything about keeping separate in the kitchen, the rituals, and the merging of religious and national identities, which is fairly unique,” she told the gathering.

Wierzycka related that most of her father’s family perished during World War II, aside from her father, his sister, and their parents. Her grandmother, Helena, had been in a concentration camp. She died two years ago at the age of 95.

Not long before she passed away, Wierzycka and her siblings went to Poland and taped the grandmother’s oral history. “Everyone who survived the Holocaust has a story, and every story deserves a book,” she said. “She’s probably the person I respect the most, and would like to emulate the most.”

Her paternal grandparents, who had escaped to Russia, wanted to go back to Poland after the war, and opted to stay in spite of the country “even today” being openly anti-Semitic. “In Poland, if you switch on the TV, within half an hour something anti-Semitic is said. This pervasive anti-Semitism against a people who are no longer there, is completely incomprehensible to me. That’s why I don’t go back,” she said. “I’d rather fly my aunt and cousin here, or meet them in London.”

In the early 1980s, the Polish economy started deteriorating, and the country began running out of food. “We were all issued with postage stamps allowing, for example, a kilogram of meat per month per family member, or sugar.

“We had to queue in front of empty shops for two days waiting for food to be delivered,” she recalled. It was then that her father decided that it was time to leave.

This could be done only illegally and at night, and without telling anybody, as during that period, only one family member was allowed to leave at a time. “My father decided to cross the border in the middle of the night. We took a train, and landed up in Vienna.

The family spent eight or nine months in military barracks while applying to various countries for admission. It was there that they spotted an advert by the South African government offering jobs.

Her parents, both doctors, decided that, in spite of not knowing anything about the country, they would at least be employed in their professions. Arriving with $500 (R7 000) and a couple of cases, it took them five years to rebuild their lives.

“They didn’t speak any English. They didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to our lives, so we had to get on with it very early on,” she recalled.

But Wierzycka was determined and smart, and made her way in the business world.

Displaying the fearless outspokenness for which she has become renowned in recent years, as a young actuary two months into her first job, Wierzycka demanded an investigation into the sexual harassment that was prevalent in the company.

“They agreed to it, but said that if I didn’t stop talking, they would make sure that I never worked in South Africa again. That was not really the sort of company I wanted to work for,” she said.

Turning her attention to current events, Wierzycka expressed her disappointment in the business community, and the fact that it does not involve itself in politics. “I’ve never perceived myself or Sygnia as being a big part of the business community – no-one’s ever done us any favours.

“It wasn’t difficult to be a little bit of an island. I’m still the majority shareholder in the company, so I don’t have to bow down to other shareholders.”

When Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was fired by former President Jacob Zuma in March 2017, she felt it was time for business to take a stand. “I decided to write an article [in Daily Maverick] on what we should do as a nation.

“Suddenly, I discovered Twitter and the power of social media,” she recalled, “so I started writing more.”

At one point, Business Leadership South Africa invited her to a meeting, and told her, “You’re on your own – you’re naïve.

“Business will adapt to whatever environment we’re in, so if there’s an environment of paying bribes, we’ll do so. No-one will take the ethical, moral stand that you’re taking, but you’re welcome to join us.”

“I decided not to,” said Wierzycka.

Speaking of the rampant corruption during the Zuma years, she said Zuma made it an “acceptable way of doing business”.

“What I think caught a lot of people by surprise was the participation of the private sector in Project Zuma. None of it would have happened without some large global companies, some with South African roots, actively participating.”

Commending President Cyril Ramaphosa as “methodical” and “doing the right things”, she cautioned, “Things are happening, but you can’t underestimate the amount of pushback in the ANC and the municipalities because so many were on the take.”

On the land question, she maintained that, “No-one’s going to be invading farms or confiscating land – not on Cyril’s watch.” There would, however, be no “soft landing” for the economy.

As for the Guptas, Wierzycka opined that they should be extradited from Dubai, but not in the next two years. “Before we touch them, we have to have a rock-solid case, solid prosecutors, solid evidence.

“It’s a process you’ve got to run with competent people, which the NPA doesn’t have at the moment, so there’s no point in touching them now.”

In spite of the country’s problems, she said, “I am an optimist. I still think Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. There are a lot of opportunities here.”

Photo by: Katya Kim Photography