ABSTRACT
Mandelay Coatings is a paint manufacturing business owned by Mr Galliem Jacobs. He came from a poor family and built his business up ‘through clear thinking’. He says that the person from whom he purchased his factory from often used to say that Mr Jacobs was fortunate, because he had achieved his present position through ability and not through wealth. Mr Jacobs spoke a lot about the disastrous effect that apartheid had on his confidence and other Blacks. He emphasized the psychological effects and the fact that Black people grew up without confidence. He mentioned a case where he was employed by the third largest paint company in South Africa and, as a paint range, was asked to design the Nova paint range. This was so successful it sold in large quantities all over South Africa. But because he was not White, the company sent down a white Afrikaner to be his manager. This man did not have a passion for the business in the same way that Mr Jacobs did. The manager would spend the day playing golf and return at the end of the day to ask Mr Jacobs if everything was fine, and to sign the supervision register. When satisfied clients came to visit, Mr Jacobs would be thanked, but his manager would go off to lunch with the visitor. This made Mr Jacobs feel this company was not the right place for him to be (they did not value what they had in him). Mr Jacobs became one of the country’s foremost paint chemists. Friends urged him to start his own business, and clients — national and international — kept putting in orders. He designed a range of fireproof paints of which he sold the copyright to a larger company (the product was too expensive for him to manufacture). This paint was used to paint the steel framework of Cavendish Square.
