Spicer was a mentor and patriot who loved SA with a passion
The legendary Michael Spicer, who passed away last week, was a man with great foresight who did more than any other individual to induct me into the world of business.
An avid media consumer, Spicer was a regular reader of my weekly columns in newspapers back home, but he and I had never met before. At the time, Anglo American had a strained relationship with the Thabo Mbeki government. Although the company had been granted permission to relocate to London, the government of the time believed Anglo subsequently showed neither loyalty nor commitment to its country of origin.
I soon realised that SA’s bid for the 2010 Fifa World Cup was just the right opportunity. I figured that since only African countries were competing for the opportunity and SA had come so close to winning the right to host the 2006 World Cup, there was a very good chance that we would make it this time. The sponsorship deal was R15m, and there would be money needed to leverage it.
So, thanks to Spicer, Anglo American — which did not have any history with local football, and has never done anything similar since — announced at a big function at the head office that it would be the first sponsor of SA’s 2010 bid. That opened the way for other companies to follow Anglo American’s lead and come on board. I went on to represent the company on the board of the 2010 Bid Company, and we launched an expansive marketing campaign called “Anglo American: Passionate About SA”.
Whenever I mentioned to him, even in passing, a forthcoming event like the Mining Indaba, his standard response was: “Why are you not there?” Consequently, during my four-way stay with Anglo-American I was a regular in Cape Town, with him not only for the state of the nation addresses but also for the annual Mining Indaba and other important functions, such as corporate events at Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West.
It was therefore fitting that Spicer, Lazarus Zim and I were at Fifa headquarters in Zurich when Sepp Blatter announced that SA would indeed host the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
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