MICHAEL EDWARDES, the new chairperson of British Leyland, lists in his entry in Who's Who his membership of the Rand Club in Johannesburg. South Africa. Edwardes Dobson's choice, but his record shows that he WHERE Q5 well have been. GEOFF BELL examines Edwardes sordid past.
Michael Edwardes was educated in South Africa and spent his formative years there. His membership of the Rand Club is a fitting symbol of his years serving apartheid, It is described in a glossy magazine currently on display in the South African Embassy in London as 'very rich, very exchisive. for those who move in the right social circles* So not only is it an all-white club, it is the drinking hole for the very dregs of the South African establishment. Founded nearly a hundred years ago by a number of leading colonialists. including Cecil Rhodes, it was the club where British royalty stayed whenever they visited the land of racism incorporated. The Prince of Wales, later to be Edward VIII was just one of the guests at the Kand.
It is possible that Edwardes patronage of the Rand played some part in forming his prejudices, which he has frequently displayed in his career in Britain. He is on record as opposing any price control on the basis that *Industry will not be able to improve its profitability. He has criticised the level of taxation of the rich because it "stifles entrepreneurial flair', and described workers' control as 'nonsense' Such attitudes characterised his time as head of Chloride Batteries. In May this year Edwardes attempted to sack one in ten of the workers at Chloride, despite the fact that this workforce made a profit for the company of nearly E20 million the previous year. The company was also breaking an agreement with the unions by which Edwardes and Co. had agree to limit imports from Chloride subsidiaries throughout the world, Included in the countries with which Edwardes was secretly dealing was, of course, sunny South Africa.
The workers at Chloride occupied the plants over Edwardes' arbitary decisions. After nine weeks Edwardes backed down. But the dispute received little publicity at the time in the national press. The official strike circular offered this explanation for the lack of press interest:
Michael Edwardes, while being managing director of the Chloride Group, is also a member of the National Enterprise Board and as such is using his influence in order to stop the press Edwardes" position on the NEB - a government agency — did not prevent him from personally breaking Phase I of the Social Contract. At a time when the norm for wage increases was meant to be f6 a week, Edwardes awarded himself a rise of approximately £10,000 a year - over three hundred times the E6 limit.
Edwardes has been a member of the NEB since its inception by the Labour Government in 1975. No doubt he got on well there with the recent chairperson of the board, Lord Ryder. For he is also a leading apologist for South Africa. Ryder is a member of the UK Trade Association, which describes its objective as to promote trade and investment between the UK and South Africa'. When we contacted the organisation carlier this week, we were told by its secretary F.J. Kump that 'we work behind the scenes. We make sure that people who are anti-South Africa don't interfere with trade'.
Such sentiments would no doubt po down very well ar the Rand Club, and indeed at British Leyland whose management has a long history association with the apartheid regime J.H. Plane, a chairperson of Leyland when it was still in private hands, is on record in 1970 as saying that South Africa was 'one of the most promising countries in the world'. Leyland's heavy investment in South Africa has reflected such optimism.
Edwardes whole history - his links with the leaders of apartheid his anti-union practices at Chloride, and his public attacks on any marginally kept him un TH WH SU The National Associa
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I see they've got to replace Dobson...
Yes. This one's even better-he's actually FRon South Africa