How Nelson Mandela acquired his first BMW

Madiba had a number of BMWs during his presidential term, and is seen here getting the keys to a 7 Series in the late 1990s from former BMW SA boss Ian Robertson. Picture: SUPPLIED

In the early 1990s my job as head of strategic planning at BMW SA became a little more important than very strategically planning to just happen to be in the neighbourhood of St Andrew's in Scotland round about the time the Open championship was being played. Or, trying to develop a five-year plan without actually knowing what the social, political or economic environment was going to be like by tea time the following day.

But, there was also a rather chilling reality that in the heated build-up to the 1994 elections. There would be some people in SA who would not want to see Mandela as president and the prospect of his assassination could not be discounted. We phoned Cyril Ramaphosa who said thanks for the gesture but Mr Mandela could not possibly accept the gift of a car. He added that such a car would probably have to be bought for him once he was President, but in the meantime he would just have to make do with the car he had.

It was early morning and he had, a few hours earlier, returned from a visit to the Far East. He and Ramaphosa received us with friendliness and enormous hospitality.

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