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Anton Rupert
A Biography
Ebbe Dommisse
with the cooperation of
Willie Esterhuyse
TAFELBERG
Foreword
This is the first publication to attempt a comprehensive overview of Dr Anton Rupert’s career and life since his early childhood. Although books about aspects of his activities and his view of life had been published, he remained unwilling that a biography should be written. When Hannes van Zyl, then head of Tafelberg Publishers, who had over a long period expressed an interest in Dr Rupert’s story, mentioned the idea again at the turn of the century, Dr and Mrs Rupert finally agreed.
In 2001, shortly after my retirement from active journalism, the publisher approached me to undertake this task, one that proved both daunting and demanding, yet thoroughly fascinating. Despite his public profile, Anton Rupert is a very private person who has wide-ranging interests, while his career also partly overlaps with the rise of the Afrikaner in the economy.
Prof. Willie Esterhuyse of the University of Stellenbosch Business School, who had written a short volume on Rupert as an ‘advocate of hope’, was asked to cooperate. He assisted with both the research and with analysis. Together, we decided that it was best that one author should write the final text.
Research and writing spanned nearly four years and a broad spectrum of people and a variety of sources, both in South Africa and abroad, were consulted.
Although the Rupert family cooperated with the authors, their wish, as well as that of the authors, was that this should not be an authorised biography. Such an approach to biography sometimes creates credibility concerns as well as other problems, and for a biographer it is certainly advisable to maintain some distance from the subject. Also, to the extent that one can strive for complete objectivity, to provide a perspective that will withstand the test of time. In a few cases where details were divulged to the author in confidence, this confidentiality was honoured.
Sincere appreciation goes to all who assisted with the research, especially members of the Rupert family as well as their friends, acquaintances and colleagues whose assistance was invaluable. Throughout the publisher provided strong support. Equally supportive were Willie Esterhuyse and his wife, Anne-marie, not only because of his valued contributions, but also because of their insight and support. Three respected adjudicators who read the manuscript, PA Joubert, Koos Human and Danie van Niekerk, provided valuable advice and suggestions on earlier drafts.
Lastly, a special word of thanks to my wife, Daléne, for her love, patience and increasing understanding that retirement need not mean doing nothing or gardening.
EBBE DOMMISSE
Cape Town 2005
The second edition of this biography appears after the first edition had four reprints. In the second edition events up to and after the death on 18 January 2006 of Dr Rupert, who passed away three months after his wife, Huberte, died, are brought up to date.
EBBE DOMMISSE
Cape Town 2007
PART I
TURNING POINT
Chapter 1
Atom bombs and parks for peace
Only once in his career did Anton Rupert deliberately stay away from his office for a whole day.
This was when he heard of the world’s first war-time nuclear explosion: the morning the devastating news reached South Africa that an atom bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, destroying the Japanese seaport. The brief prelude to Japan’s surrender and the end of the Second World War had begun.
The nuclear horror, a direct result of the splitting of the atom through which humankind developed the ability to annihilate itself, irrevocably changed the course of history. It also changed Anton Rupert’s view of life irrevocably.
The young Afrikaner industrialist, trained in the natural sciences and destined to become his country’s most innovative entrepreneur and the head of one of Africa’s two wealthiest families, immediately sensed that this was a defining moment in history: one of those rare events that would forever be remembered as a turning point in human existence.
Rupert was at that stage still in Johannesburg, an inexperienced young entrepreneur with a factory processing pipe tobacco that struggled to keep afloat in the tough wartime conditions. That morning in early August when he heard of the devastation of Hiroshima, he telephoned his office to announce that he would be unavailable for the whole day. Instead, he stayed home to ponder on the destructive force of the atom bomb: ‘I realised that the human race had become like scorpions in a bottle, with the power to destroy one another totally.’1
Expressing a similar sense of awe after witnessing the giant mushroom cloud forming over the stricken city, Robert Lewis, who had been the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber of the American Air Force that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, wrote in his journal: ‘My God, what have we done?’
One hundred thousand of the 245 000 inhabitants of Hiroshima perished that day, obliterated by the force of nuclear power, with a further 100 000 dying in the aftermath. Three days later the second and last atom bomb destroyed the picturesque port city of Nagasaki, killing another 80 000 people.2
The devastating atom bombs heralded the final episode of Japan’s participation in the war. Five days later Emperor Hirohito acknowledged that Japan had been vanquished for the first time in its history. The images of total annihilation by the two atom bombs, Little Boy and Fat Boy, not only broke Japan’s spirit but stunned the whole world.
Anton Rupert, with a master’s degree in chemistry, understood that something cataclysmic had occurred. At his Johannesburg home, which he was to leave a few months afterwards for Stellenbosch to build a business empire that would eventually stretch across the globe, he reflected on the implications of the atomic era. He sensed that the military use of the nuclear bomb was probably the most portentous event he would experience in his lifetime, and came to the conclusion that the world would see no more great wars for fear of mutual annihilation. The inevitable consequence would be constant smaller wars, making lasting peace in the future highly unlikely.
‘Since the unlocking of the power of the atom – since Hiroshima – everything has changed, except our way of thinking. In this atomic era there is no longer any country remote enough to become a place of shelter. The biblical notion that “I am my brother’s keeper” has become a cold reality; depressions are now global, as is welfare. In this century where at least two nations possess enough bombs to destroy everything, we live like scorpions in a bottle – and he who wants to retain all, will lose all.’3
In future, humanity could only save itself through coexistence. ‘People simply have to learn to live together.’
Coexistence, a conviction that had been taking root in Rupert since his student days, now became the core concept that would inspire him all his life, and a vision that he would proclaim persuasively. The well-known Rodin bronze The Cathedral, acquired in the 1960s, stands in his office as an enduring reminder. The sculpture of two right hands symbolises for him the coexistence between people, the foundation on which he developed his business philosophy. On this philosophy of coexistence, or partnerships forged from country to country, he built a worldwide international business chain long before globalisation became a fashionable concept.
This vision of partnership is coupled with social responsibility, which he considers one of the three major responsibilities of a successful business enterprise. Not only should there be coexistence between human beings, but also coexistence between human beings and nature. It is with this philosophy that Rupert as conservation-oriented philanthropist was to carry the concept of peace parks, or transfrontier conservation areas, across international borders.
Peace parks – with peace between peoples and nations