Team Leader Geoff Poland

May I firstly start by thanking the Rotary Club of Maseru for hosting us and for the very warm welcome that we received from Bloemfontein Rotary Club which for those of you that have either been reading the blog or have had the opportunity of experiencing South African hospitality, will recognize is truly exceptional.


Upon arrival in "Bloom" we were given a tour by President Alan Dickens and Ezanne Leach and a wonderful opportunity to view the whole of the City from Naval Hill. There can be few Cities in the World where you can see a 360 degree vista of the town. The initial impressions were certainly backed up by the hospitality and effort that has gone into our visit. This is even more remarkable given the considerable changes to our programme that the Club and Ezanne had made at my request at short notice. Thank you all, this was much appreciated by the team.


I spent Thursday with Richard Marston, a stockbroker and club member and we spent an interesting day contrasting the differences and in many cases the similarities between the UK and South Africa. Whilst this may be awfully boring to non financials it showed the opportunities facing South African Corporates, many of which have listings on both the Johannesburg and other Stock Exchange. Richard even gave me some"buy recommendations" and these are available(for a small fee of course!!)


We carried on our discussion over lunch at a restaurant at a new shopping development called Waterside and whilst the overall idea reminded me of the Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading, it was rather warmer sitting outside than at home!


I later discovered that Natasha was doing her vocational visit in one of the stores within the development and was also being regally entertained to lunch in an even better venue than mine.


On driving me back to my hosts Richard gave me a tour of some of the residential areas and in common with other areas that we have seen, there are some truly wonderful houses with pools tennis court etc. On enquiring with Richard of the prices, he thought that the largest house we saw would sell for about 2-3 million Rand. Seems a lot but if you use say 10Rand to the Pound that would buy a semi detached in Reading! Thanks Richard for your courtesy and a most interesting day.


Friday was spent with Jannie de Wit who is a financial adviser with Absa(part of the Barclays Group) and Jimmie Fouie who is a banker. I sat in on a meeting that Jannie had arranged with a client of his that ran a Wimpey Franchise, the meeting mainly to discuss the clients will arrangements and Dread Disease cover. Yes I know the latter sounds awful and no, it was not given that name because of my attendance. I pointed out to both that in the UK we call it Critical Illness cover, which whilst still sounding slightly off-putting is I think less intimidating.


We went back to the Bank to pick up Jimmie and then travelled to Tromsburg to visit a farmer that Absa had lent 5million Rand to purchase another farm. He now has 20,000 hectares, some 7000 sheep and the income from the wool alone produces income of 1.6million Rand per annum. Whilst there they were shearing the sheep for which the shearers are paid 5Rand per animal. They suggested I have a go but declined as I don't think Rotary's Insurance would cover my incompetence at harming the animal as opposed to actually shearing. However as I was later to discover most of the discussion was in Afrikaans, so I couldn't interfere with the rates being charged(perhaps just as well).


Lunch was taken in a small town prior to our next meeting and consisted of a coke and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps. See how bankers have had to cut back post the credit crunch!! We then travelled to see two brothers who had also received the Banks agreement for a facility of 4.5million Rand to bid at auction for another farm. Whilst the meeting was also conducted in Afrikaans the brothers were quite keen to sell me their farm for sterling! It didn't take me too long to decline their kind offer.


It was a long but very enjoyable and interesting day and my thanks to both Jannie and Jimmie for allowing me to join them.


Saturday started with a tour of the local farmers market which was well supported and gave me an opportunity of helping the local economy, although what it will do to my luggage allowance is another matter. Perhaps I could save 5 kilos by leaving my camcorder although that will deny me the opportunity of leaving it to a museum .


The afternoon was spent on another vocational "visit" to Bloom Golf Course with Herman Leach and two friends. Great afternoon but the only thing that can be said of my play was a 40 foot putt for a birdie.Unfortunately it is not recorded on video. However it was a surreal experience to almost have to have a caddie whilst playing and thus someone to give you every club and clean your ball! However some things are the same the world over and the usual amount of time was spent at the 19th. My thanks to Herm for organizing this vocational course.



Although the team have a free day tomorrow before leaving for Bethlehem, considerable thanks go to The Rotary Club of Bloomfontein and our individual hosts for a truly memorable stay.