Chapter 1

When I first heard of Delilah Mpofu, my first thought was that my father was finally losing his mind. I hated the woman long before I even met her. Even though we were twenty years into South Africa’s democracy, my father, Matthias Georgiades,  had raised me be a proud white male living in South Africa and to know that no matter how things can change, black and white will never be the same nor will they ever be equal. I just couldn’t understand why he would want to change things all of a sudden.

 

 Matthias was the founder and CEO of Georgiades Automotive Company for most of his life and he had taught me everything I knew and believed in. He and I were so much alike that it scared me sometimes. The difference between us was the fact that I could speak Afrikaans fluently and he had a heavy Greek accent. A lot of Greek people immigrated to South Africa in the eighties when opportunities in mining and business in general were quite huge. He came with no family, but with millions from his father’s inheritance with which he started the company. In less than five years he had more than doubled his investment and eliminated almost most of his competitors.

 

 The first thing he did on his arrival was purchase an expensive house in Pretoria East and that quickly drew the attention of the single ladies in the area. When he met my mother she was his PA. From what he told me, she had no experience, no qualifications but she had one hell of a body. I don’t even want to imagine how I was conceived! My mother, Henrietta Le Roux was a typical Afrikaans woman who was born with perfect looks. She went to all the glamorous social events because her parents could afford it and also because she was hoping to find a wealthy man who would marry her. I suppose she was too busy doing that that she never really found the time to teach herself independence.

My parents met at the annual Sun City golf challenge and were so into each other that they decided to book a room at the hotel and spend the night. He gave her a job as his PA and probably had her for lunch every second day. What my mother didn’t know at the time was that she had found the wrong kind of rich man. The truth was that my father couldn’t be with one woman if you threatened his life. By the time my poor mother found out it was too late. She was already pregnant with me and Daddio was no that into her anymore. So that is how I, Alexander Le Roux, was born.

Judging by the nature of my birth, it is easy to conclude that I grew up rich and spoiled. Matthias bought my mother a beautiful house in La Montagne and made sure that she had everything she needed as long as she was the mother of his son. I grew up staying with my mother, but I saw Matthias as some kind of hero. To me, he was more than just a model parent. I copied everything he did, the way he walked, the way he smiled and even the way he carried himself around people. In short, I was an exact replica of my father!

My father was a billionaire who was followed by scandals everywhere he went, and my mother did not want me to be associated with such a man. I loved both my parents and felt torn between the two of them. My father never married after leaving my mother, but was known for several affairs with women all over the country.

I didn’t know the real reason why my father left Greece. I just knew that South Africa was a developing country with so much potential, which is probably how my father succeeded in such a short space of time.

When I was in high school, I hardly ever saw my father because my mother was forever bitter about him leaving her and I felt like I was betraying my mother. She didn’t even want me to tell people that Matthias was my father. Of course that never stopped Matthias from buying me exaggeratedly expensive gifts. She had dated a couple of guys after my father, but Matthias had strict rules against strange me hanging around his son so she gave up eventually. He had also threatened to stop giving her anything if he found out that she ever let a man into a house that he bought. Basically, she was asked to choose between money and happiness. She chose the former. When my mother died in a car accident I was in my final grade of high school.

Even though my father still did everything for me, he asked me to join the company a couple of years after my mother died. I had to drop out of the University of Pretoria where I was doing my final year in Industrial Engineering just to please him. Somehow I felt that he was not just eager for me to work for his company because I would take over one day, but also the guilt he felt after leaving me and my mother. I was his only child and I felt that he was trying too hard to please me sometimes. He taught me everything he knew about running a successful company and even allowed me to work my way from the bottom so I would understand every aspect of the business. At the age of twenty seven I was the General Manager of the Pretoria Region and I felt that I had finally reached the level I had been aiming for.

 

 I loved my job and enjoyed its everyday challenges. When my father decided to retire at the age of sixty, it came as a complete shock to me. What was even more shocking was who he had chosen to take over as CEO of the company. It still puzzled me to imagine how a man that thinks black people generally cannot think would choose not just any black person, but a female, to be in charge of the company. That Delilah bloody Mpofu!

Matthias claimed that she had the experience and the qualifications to do the job for a while until he felt that I was ready to run the business myself. She was black, female and younger than me! She couldn’t possibly have more experience!

‘So, what do you call what you’ve been teaching me for the past ten years, the introduction?’ I snapped.  We were having lunch at his house when he told me the news.

‘Alexander, son, you have to be patient. There is a lot you can learn from this woman…’ He broke off.

‘I’m being taught by a woman? A black woman on top of that! What is she, one of your mistresses? Matthias you are choosing one of your mistresses over your own son!’ I yelled.

‘It’s not like that son. Delilah is a very intelligent young woman who has a lot of experience too. She’s a Wits Business School graduate and she knows a lot about…’

‘Matthias! I dropped out of University so you can be happy working with your son. If I had known things would turn out this way I would never have even done you any favours!’

‘Alexander, listen to me.’ He said calmly. I hated it when he used my full name. ‘She’s a young black female and that will do us very good with BEE rating which we desperately need right now.’ GAC is your company, you know that. You were not doing me any favours by joining the company. You did it for yourself. All I’m asking is a couple of years to learn from this woman. I’m begging you son.’ He pleaded.

Black Economic Empowerment crap! I thought as I was driving back to La Montagne. I had forgotten how complex South Africa was with more different colours than the rainbow and eleven official languages! I had never been in contact with any black people except the old lady who cleaned my house and a few black men from our clients. I knew that Matthias always spoke of black people as some kind of animals that were not able to think. As a result, he never hired many black people in the company. I also knew that the reason he had hired this black woman was because he really had no other choice. With South Africa’s democracy old enough to drink, the legislation demanded a lot from private companies to accommodate the previously disadvantaged, and one of them was to put black people in management positions.

Somehow I understood my father’s decision. I knew that in order to stay competitive in business one had to accept change. Unlike my father I had nothing against hiring black people, but I couldn’t bring myself to like this particular black person. I had successfully managed to hide the fact that Matthias was my father from the staff for years. It was one of my conditions for working for him, to pretend that we were not related. I did not want Matthias’ employees to mistreat me because I was his son and also think that Matthias was doing me favours. I knew that the resemblance was quite striking, but to everyone I was just an Afrikaans man from La Montagne. I was the stereotypical “Greek god” with a tall muscular structure and good looks, probably like Matthias when he was my age. At sixty, he refused to look the part. He still worked out and looked after his appearance quite well. I did not want to be beaten by a sixty year old man, so I also did my best to keep up. Matthias and I had more in common than I liked to admit. That included our love for beautiful women.

 

Actually it was them that threw themselves at us. Matthias called it the “Greek god” effect, even though I thought it was the “money” effect in his case.  By the time I became the General Manager, I had slept with most of the women in the company. Somehow marriage never appealed to me.

 I was quite grumpy on Matthias’ last week at the company and I think that people noticed it too. I just hoped it would not be too obvious that I was angry with Matthias. They knew that I had spent most of my time with him, but I think they simply assumed that he was my role model. I had never heard anyone mention any suspicion of Matthias being my father, even though he insisted on calling me Alexander instead of Alex, like everybody else did. I still wonder if my anger was just because my father was leaving or the fact that my company was to be led by some black female Wits graduate.

 

It was Monday, 3rd March 2014 when Delilah started working as the CEO of GAC. Matthias had decided to spend a week in Mauritius and I decided to join him. I realised how I would miss working with my father and decided that it would be better to spend time with him than face my worst nightmare. It was also because I sensed that something was bothering Matthias. At the time I thought it was because he was missing being in charge and probably needed someone to keep him company. The more time I spent with him the more I realised that something else was wrong. In just a week, he seemed to have gained ten years to his appearance. He looked sad and old, not like the powerful and in control person I was used to.  Somehow I felt that the mysterious Delilah had something to do with it. I wondered if she was not perhaps blackmailing him about something. It was the only reason a healthy looking sixty year old would leave his company and allow it to be run by some stranger. I was sure they had never had an affair with the woman because of her skin colour and my knowledge of my father’s racism inclinations.

If there was one funny thing about South Africa it was the fact that black people had been free for almost twenty years, racism was still very much alive. I never personally referred to myself as racist, but no white person did. As far as we were all concerned, we were all just defending our right to a country to that our forefathers civilized and made it what it was now. Black people were just ignorant people that wanted a free ride just because they happened to be natives to the country. They wanted free jobs, free accommodation and government grants. Basically, they just wanted everything to be handed to them and that made me sick!

 

If Delilah knew some dark secret about my father and was blackmailing him as I suspected, I was determined to make her pay for it. I was certain that she was somehow responsible for my father’s unhappiness. With so much hate for this woman I did not even know, I felt like the biggest racist of all. Funny enough, it didn’t even bother me anymore. This kind of reminds me of the times when my parents would warn me against playing with little black kids when I was still a boy. I used to wonder what my friends did so badly to be given a black skin. And why people made them pay for something they had no control over. Whoever hates a cow for being created with horns or dog for barking? Surely wouldn’t that be blaming the very person who created these creatures? As much as it is not the cow’s fault that it is a cow, it is also not the person’s fault that they are black, white, Indian or coloured.

After remembering all this, I still hated Delilah. At least I had a good reason for it. I would have felt the same way if she was blue, pink or purple.

 Our week away did not do my father any good either. When we returned, he decided to spend some time playing golf with his friends. I knew that staying away from work any longer than I already had, it would be taking advantage of the fact that my father owned the company.  I knew that he referred to GAC as my company, but I knew that as long as he was alive it would always be his. He still made major decisions and influenced big changes that were made. This is why it surprised me when he agreed when I suggested we open a component refurbishing division in Randburg. It was far from the main company in Silverton, Pretoria; but I knew that spending most of my time setting the factory up would help me stay away from Delilah for as long as possible. Instead of going back to Silverton from my leave, I decided to spend about a week at the new division to see how things were progressing. Everything seemed to be going better than I had planned that I saw the need to hire a couple more factory supervisors. I had just returned from my last day in Randburg on a Friday when Jake Blignaut, the GAC Human Resources Manager paid me a visit at my house. Jake was a cheerful middle aged man who knew his job very well. He also knew more about what went on the premises than he admitted to. This was one of the reasons I kept him close to me. He had known me from the time I was just a technician at the company and saw me grow to a successful General Manager. Seeing his car park outside did not come as a surprise to me. He was one person who never cared to call before time. It was a bad habit he had taught me so well.

Chapter 2

Jake had his usual cheerful grin as he walked towards the house. Something about it always made me think that he was a book short of a library, and yet I never under-estimated the man. He was much craftier that he was letting everyone believe. He was a short and scrawny man with eyes too big for his face. Something about the way he always looked at me always gave me the creeps, like he knew everyone’s secrets and could use them against them whenever he saw fit. His much too pale skin always seemed to bring out the olive in mine.

Jake was a much older than I was, but with a couple of drinks he would sound any age you wanted him to be, not that he ever need a drink for that anyway. We were watching soccer over a few beers when I decided to bring the dreaded topic up.

‘So, Jake, how are you guys doing with Delilah “Miss BEE” Mpofu?’ I finally asked him. It was almost like I lit him up by mentioning the topic.

‘I’m telling you, Alex, she is BEE “utiful”! She is like that chick from The next top Model or something. Tall, long legs, great body, the works!’ He exclaimed.

He wanted to tell me that she looked like Tina. Of course he wouldn’t remember the name because Tina was a black person. I was surprised that he even remembered her though. It was funny how white South African males secretly admired black celebrities. It was like there was an unwritten law against it. Our new South Africa was really strange. Funny, but strange! Well, it was obviously no secret to Jake. He said things like he saw them.

‘Jake stop, you are a married man!’ I said trying to concentrate on our conversation. ‘Are you even allowed to look at women like that? Besides, I couldn’t care less about how she looks. I just want to know how she’s doing her job.’ I was a bit annoyed at how she had seemed to charm our HR Manager the way she had.

‘She knows her stuff too! The woman walks around with a whip and straightens out everyone I tell you! She even attends the Quality meetings, and has everyone swallowing their tongues! It’s no more bullshit from now on!’ I just got angry when I realised that Delilah had taken over my meetings and I would be seeing Delilah every week! So Jake was sure that I would actually be scared of this woman. He obviously didn’t know me that well.

‘How do you even know about this, Jake? You are HR!’ I asked.

‘I speak to the Executive PA. She confides in me a lot.’ I wondered who else in the company confided in him.

‘Miss Mpofu even attends HR meetings! I told you, dude, it’s no more bullshit!’ He laughed as he opened his fourth beer. Miss? As in unmarried? How old was this Delilah anyway?

‘She’s quite young too? She’s probably the youngest person in management. At twenty five, she seems to have achieved quite a lot in life.’ He added, answering my unasked question. ‘She has worked for a vehicle assembly company for quite a while; automotive components are a piece of cake to her.’ He said.

Okay, so she knows the customer! I can see why Matthias hired her, but that didn’t mean I had to like her.

‘Where is she from anyway? Aren’t Pofu’s supposed to be Xhosa or something?’ I said genuinely looking puzzled.

‘She’s a Johannesburg girl, my friend! I’m warning you, if you are going to be speaking to her, start with pronouncing her surname right. She’s very strict about people saying her surname the wrong way. It’s M-P-O-F-U!’ He said as if explaining to a small child. I knew that he had to stop because the beers were starting to get to his head.

‘F-U too, Jake! I will say anybody’s name any way I like!’ This is my company, you know! I had a good mind to just tell Jake the truth. I would have too, if I didn’t worry so much about my father. I wondered who else the mysterious Delilah had charmed. I suddenly felt sick and wished Jake would just leave. With his mind-reading tendencies I think he sensed it too. As soon as the game was over, I offered to drive him home. He told me that his wife would be fetching him. He was probably the only manager whose wife I hadn’t slept with. Who would blame me? If I had to do it I probably needed to put a bag over her face! She seemed too big for a scrawny man like Jake, too; and looked worse than the devil’s wife even. Jake had two daughters in their early twenties, he was just lucky that they resembled their mother otherwise I would have screwed the whole family! I think Jake knew about what I did because a lot of GAC employees confided in him. One thing I loved about the man was the fact that he would never tell the next person what you told him. Sometimes I think the wanted to warn me about certain things. I’m sure he knew about me sleeping around, but couldn’t get himself to ask me about it. He simply told me that a couple of females approached him for advice, and I just knew that they told him about sleeping with me. If I wasn’t Jake’s friend, I would probably have been in heaps of trouble with sexual harassment cases. I don’t know what Jake told the women when they told him, I just knew that it kept me out of trouble. I loved Jake, he was my friend! I just knew that I had to stop this habit sometime before it came back to bite me when I’m CEO of the company.

 

As soon as Jake was gone I decided to go to bed early, but Mrs Khumalo insisted that I eat. She had cooked a delicious Friday meal and I hated to disappoint her. The woman was the closest thing I knew to a mother since my own mother passed away. She also acted like she was my mother too. I think it was due to the fact that she didn’t have any children. She had been around since I was just a little boy. She never spoke much, but I wished she and I would talk more.

Despite the stuff I learned from my father about black people, I did observe several things which I kept quiet about just to please him. My father treated black people as dogs, yet they seemed to know more about his company than he did.

I realised this quite early that if I spend time talking to them, I would learn a lot. With all that I still didn’t change my opinion of them. They always came up with a number of good ideas, too. Of course I would always pretend they were my ideas when I got to the meetings. I knew it was wrong, but it was the only way I could get ahead in the company. Besides, Matthias would never let one of them get promoted. The very black people he hated were the same people who held the key to the success of his business. They were not stupid, they were just misunderstood, I guess. I remember when I

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 06.02.2015
ISBN: 978-3-7368-7605-7

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Dedicated to Olwethu, my daughter and best friend.