A different view on current affairs & history
Sometime ago I wrote a blog about working in the motor industry during the 1920s in Port Elizabeth. This is a follow-up article on working life on the assembly line during the 1960s. Warwick Owen has kindly allowed me to use his article as the basis of this blog. As Warwick worked at SAMAD, the predecessor of VW, I have included a brief history of the company from its inception until Warwick is employed by the company in the 1960s
Main Picture: Original SAMAD Building
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This is a comprehensive history of Volkswagen South Africa. It is not based on research as it is direct copy off the internet. As the original source cannot be traced, I have been unable to attribute it to the authors.
Main picture: The SAMAD plant in 1950
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In a democratic society, secrets and malfeasance are exposed at lightning speed. As such, the more influential and well-known an institution is in society today, the higher the standards bar is set. Any failure in this regard will have catastrophic world-wide implications. Think no further than the disaster at Bhophal of a subsidiary of Union Carbide. It would have been pointless for Union Carbide to insist that the safety standards at this plant complied with the local Indian Standards when the standards required in America would have prevented such a tragedy.
Notice what happened in South Africa when KFC was allegedly caught on video “recycling” burnt chicken. Would the same backlash have been experienced if the Take Away Joint had been McCleland’s Luscious Fried Chicken? I doubt it. Perhaps a few lines, if that, in a local newspaper but little else besides.