Part 36
Continuing on the theme of life under an authoritarian regime, it’s wonderful how people can find their way around seemingly impossible situations. As Apartheid in South Africa rightly brought about the wrath of sanctions from most other nations, its thriving economy began to suffer.
In an attempt to keep lines of communication open with the economies of other countries, a number of top businessmen formed an organization called the South African Foundation. It was avowedly apolitical, avoiding any support or overt criticism of the Apartheid government, although it was common knowledge that members of the Foundation could not wait for the end of Apartheid and hopefully the end of sanctions against the country.
I was commissioned to write and direct a documentary that told the story of the Foundation and its influence in maintaining commercial links with other countries. It was an intriguing project which required us to visit and film the four overseas offices of the Foundation in Paris, Bonn, London and Washington. I regret that I cannot remember the names of any of the directors of the Foundation in each country. The film was made over forty years ago but I do vividly remember the experiences we had in each country.
We started in Paris and were hosted by the Foundation’s director who was a South African but also a self-confessed Francophile. I was delighted that he knew numerous out-of-the-way, non-touristy restaurants, where we were fed wonderful authentic French cuisine. Our host gave us an outline on camera of the current business relations between South Africa and France which were fragile at that stage.
He also arranged for me to interview one of the 577 deputes (delegates) in the National Assembly, the equivalent of a British Parliament. Interestingly the gentleman’s surname was, from memory, Le Roux. In the seventeenth century, a large number of French Protestants, known as Huguenots, fled from persecution in France and settled in the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Although they initially formed their own communities in places like Franschoek, about eighty miles outside of Cape Town, they were gradually assimilated into the Dutch settlers who had been there for over a hundred years. Today, the Dutch in South Africa, now known as Afrikaners (since the 1920s) carry many French surnames like Le Roux, Du Toit and Du Plessis, for example. Monsieur Le Roux did indeed have relatives in South Africa and was looking forward to re-establishing normal relations with South Africa in due course
We then crossed over the Channel to London to be met at Heathrow Airport by the British Director of the Foundation. We had written ahead to request a large car capable of carrying our film gear. He had replied somewhat apologetically asking if we would mind using his own car, which he assured us was quite large. We had no problem with that but when we reached the car park we were stunned to discover that he was driving a Rolls Royce.
He was a very elegant gentleman who also happened to be one of South Africa’s leading poets.
During our trip to Britain, we visited Oxford where I interviewed some university professor and enjoyed the rustic charm of the ancient city and its halls of learning. I also interviewed a very senior naval officer aboard the HMS Belfast, which is still moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge even to this day. He was very forthright about the importance at that time of the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope and the value of the South African navy in that region, regardless of any disagreements the British may have had with the Apartheid government.
On our last day in London, while waiting to interview a politician on a patch of grass outside the Houses of Parliament, which is the place allotted to news and film crews, I saw another film crew close to us. The cameraman looked across at us, smiled and asked where we were from. I replied, South Africa. The guy’s expression changed, instantly giving us a look of pure hatred. He turned away muttering angrily. We could hear words like “white racists” and “Apartheid pigs,” which we ignored and concentrated on the Member of Parliament whom I interviewed. After we had finished, the cameraman was still spoiling for a fight. He sneered at us and said “I s’pose that’s your camera car then?” He said, pointing at the Rolls. Suppressing a giggle, I replied. “As a matter of fact, it is!” To rub it in, my cameraman picked up his camera gear, walked across the turf and loaded it into the trunk, while the other guy watched open-mouthed!
The Foundation’s director in Bonn, left an indelible impression on all of us, which is why I’m all the more embarrassed by forgetting his name. He was born in the small town of Aliwal North in South Africa, of German parents. After a successful academic and later business career, he joined the Foundation and was the perfect candidate for the Foundation’s German director. However, shortly after taking up the appointment, his eyesight deteriorated. He had an operation on his eyes which had failed and he became completely blind. He met us at the Bonn airport with his secretary who drove the car. As we left the airport, he announced that he would give us a tour of the city. So, we had the bizarre experience of a blind tourist guide talking to us throughout the drive and giving both historical facts about Bonn and certain buildings as we passed them, as well as remarking that the blossoms should be in full bloom as we passed a park. He only checked once or twice with his secretary whether we were in a specific street or area.
Suitably impressed, we were subsequently regaled with perhaps the most lucid and convincing account of the current (1970s) state of Germany, Europe, Russia, South Africa and the rest of the world that I had ever heard. He also told us that, on a visit to Russia, he was invited to speak to a section of the KGB. When he asked whether he should speak to them in English or German, he was told to rather speak in Afrikaans, as the entire section he was addressing were fluent in that language. He was stunned to discover just how seriously they took their information-gathering in Southern Africa. After a delightful day trip on a Rhine pleasure steamer, I interviewed this remarkable man as we drifted along with glorious scenery and an occasional Schloss (castle) on the steep hillsides overlooking the river.
Arriving in Washington, D.C., we filmed numerous of the famous buildings and monuments, including the White House, interviewing a couple of congressmen, provided for us by the Foundation’s director. I was most amused to find that, in a country with the second-biggest movie industry in the world (after India), whenever we set up our camera, we were immediately besieged by groups of people curious to know what we were shooting. I’m convinced that most of them had no idea where South Africa was! Perhaps most fascinating of all, we went to the Pentagon, where I interviewed Admiral Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations. He, like his British counterpart, forcefully expressed the need to keep the Cape sea route open to the Western nations.
By some magical coincidence, my wife Hero was in Los Angeles at the time; so after wrapping the shoot, I blithely bought a Trailways ticket thinking how hard can it be to travel three days and nights on a bus across America – but that’s another story!
My point in describing all these adventures is that the Foundation’s efforts to keep communication lines open with the rest of the business world paid rich dividends both during and after Apartheid. However, had we possessed ExoBrain at the time it could have been so much easier to avoid the misinformation and false data that abounded on all sides during those turbulent days!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.