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CHAPTER 1
MR JAPIE GROBLER
I
n the days of political sanctions against South
AŠica I was privileged to be involved in the im-
por¥ing of t¢actors Šom the forer Easter Bloc
count¢ies. In England and Poland (therefore behind
the so-called ‘Iron Cur¥ain’) research was conducted
on the rebuilding and upg¢ading of old, wor-out
t¢actors. In Poland no-one could speak English and
it was a nightare just geŴing through the airor¥
and immig¢ation. No taxi could help you and people
on the st¢eet were oppressed and pathetic and even
aŠaid to be seen with a st¢anger.
On another occasion in the eighties I was par¥ of nego-
tiations with Iran – this was on a Sunday – to exchange
the major par¥ of South AŠica’s exor¥able surlus maize
for oil through t«o interediaries, and then ultimately
in the final phase on behalf of the South AŠican gover-
ment, which could not get any oil in those years. Nat§rally
this was highly confidential and could never be talked
about. The ag¢eementswere sealedwith a handshake and
nothing could be reduced to writing. The sheiks who ex-
changed the oil never showed their faces, and ever® time
somebody new came in to negotiate, you were unsure
whether it was the same person as the one who had left
the room. Today I can admit that I was pet¢ified and not
sure about my own and my par¥ers’ safet®.
With acknowledgement to the centenary publication of Senwes:
“Tyd kweek
wenners – Senwes, ’n Eeu van landbou”
.
NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT TRACTORS AND
OIL DURING SANCTION YEARS