Dear Readers,
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| Mike |
After a year in Post Matric I went to Natal University
in Pietermaritzburg to study Agriculture with no fixed idea of what to do
afterwards. Having scraped through
Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, and Physics I changed course and went to UCT to complete
a BSc degree majoring in Zoology, Botany and History.
Two years at Lincoln College, Oxford
followed and these were magical and unforgettable. I was fortunate enough to have a few games
for the University cricket team with the only first-ball duck of many years of
playing cricket being a low-light. It
wasn’t too much of a disgrace in that it was against County
Champions, Surrey,
and it was Alec Bedser (who Don Bradman had selected in his all-time-great
cricket team) who had me caught at leg slip off a devilish off-cutter.
In 1957 I married Alice Hofmeyr, her brother Gys had been in
Founders matriculating in 1949 having played centre in the 1949 first XV, often
rated as one of the really great Bishops rugby teams. Alice had been
head-girl of Herschel in 1953, and taught at the Dragon
School in Oxford in my second (calendar) year. I duly completed a BA hons in Modern History
which enabled me to get a job at Hilton
College teaching History
and Biology. I coached the U14A cricket side which had the highly talented Mike
Procter opening the bowling - off the wrong foot, but most effectively. After two years I returned to Bishops to
teach, which in hindsight was probably an error and after two years I answered
a Union Corporation (a prominent Mining House) advertisement in the Argus inviting applicants with University
degrees for managerial training.
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| Mike and his wife Alice |
To leave teaching was probably a good decision and Union
Corporation top managers were very nice people to work for. Aware that gold had a limited life, the
Mining Houses at the time were looking to diversify, as Union Corporation had
already successfully done in starting SAPPI. When the work I did on the proposal to invest
in the Durban shipping company, African Coasters, was accepted, I was sent to
Durban to work under Murray Grindrod to ‘gain practical experience’. African Coasters bought out its two rival
shipping companies to form Unicorn Shipping Lines; and I stayed for 20 years,
ending as Deputy Managing Director.
These were the challenging years of the introduction of
containerisation, the revolution which transformed the shipping industry
world-wide. We had some 30 ships and
traded from Lourenco Marques to Walvis Bay and established services to Chile, Brazil,
the Congo, Mauritius, Sri
Lanka, Iran
and Israel. I was then transferred to Grindrod and
Company as MD. Grindrod had several
companies: Ships Agents, Stevedores, Sea Freight, Air Freight, Travel and
Container consolidators.
For various reasons and at the age of 53 I resigned and took
on the task of turning-around Freddie Hirsch, Bizerba Scales, a Cape Town company that
was in poor shape. With the aid of a
brilliant Financial Manager we reduced the number of debtor’s days dramatically
and soon posted good results. This was a signal to move on and move overseas to
run Safmarine’s clandestine off-shore operations in Antwerp.
This involved the cruise ship ASTOR (which we sold to the Russians), 22
refrigerated ships running bananas from the West Indies to the UK, a container
leasing company and one or two other shipping ventures. This was the time of
heavy boycotts against South African companies and our Antwerp
operating companies were all centred in the Caymen Islands
where we had to go from time to time for Board Meetings, keeping it all strictly
legal and most favourable tax-wise.
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| Mike speaking to Private Eye Jon Abbott in his hey-day |
My final move was back to Durban to head up the SA Sugar
Association, which undertook all the common activities of the Cane Growers and
the Millers such as the five experimental farms, exports, marketing and liaison
with the Department of Trade and Industry where the Minister had to be
encouraged to control the tariffs against mainly Brazilian competitive sugar
imports. The Deputy-Minister was David Graaff whom I had taught at Bishops.
This was the time of great political change in South Africa. My role included preparing the Industry for
the new dispensation and I invited leaders like Trevor Manuel, Alec Erwin,
Jacob Zuma, Dr Frank Mdlalose, Dr Ben Ngubane and others to address the
Council.
Eventually
I retired to Hermanus in the year 2000 where, together with two friends, I was
involved in the start-up of the Overstrand Hospice. After a few years as Chairman I became
Honorary Life President so as to be on the letterhead to give credibility to
the role of getting financial contributions to purchase properties for the
offices and, importantly, for the Shop. This enterprise has been hugely successful and their free services
provide specialist care for an average of 69 terminally ill patients in their
own homes at any one time.
Yours,
Mike
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