Word: sasol
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...first, about that dubious past. Sasol's origins can be traced to the work of two German scientists, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, who in 1923 came up with a process to convert coal to liquid fuel. When Adolf Hitler seized power in coal-rich, oil-poor Germany in 1933, the Nazis used the Fischer-Tropsch process to help power their military expansion across Europe; during World War II, Germany was producing 125,000 bbl. of synthetic fuel a day at 25 plants. After the war, a South African entrepreneur called "Slip" Menell bought the South African rights to Fischer...
...international sanctions began to bite in the 1970s, Sasol became integral to the survival of an isolated South Africa--and a frequent target of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) guerrillas. In 1980 the ANC's military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe, blew up parts of Sasol's plants in Sasolburg and Secunda, both south of Johannesburg. In 1983, '84 and '85, the rebels returned to launch rocket attacks on the plants. (The rockets missed, but the attacks are commemorated to this day in an ANC song whose chorus goes, "Whoosh! Whoosh...
White supremacists using Nazi technology is a Venn diagram of bad p.r. Yet Sasol survived the end of apartheid. Why? Because it's an energy company. Precisely those qualities--size, profits, energy security--that made it a target of the ANC as a rebel group made it vital for the ANC as a government. Today Sasol has a market cap of $32 billion and is South Africa's biggest private-sector employer, with a workforce of 33,000, earnings that account for 4.4% of GDP and a production output that satisfies 38% of South Africa's fuel needs...
...also one of the primary instruments that the postapartheid government uses to dilute white domination of the economy. The government now owns 24% of Sasol, which has a black majority on its board--Davies is the company's only white executive. Former ANC guerrilla leader Max Sisulu once served as group general manager. In March, Sasol announced it was releasing more than $3 billion in shares--or 10% of the company's total value--to Sasol employees, black South Africans and other previously disadvantaged groups. A finance deal will allow buyers to own shares by putting down a small deposit...
...transformation has been so complete, reckons Davies, that Sasol's past connections to apartheid are now irrelevant. "We feel pretty good about the contribution we are making to South Africa and this continent," he says. "We're offering a partial solution to the energy situation on a global basis, and we're doing it in a way that provides jobs, alleviates poverty and improves quality of life. Don't dwell on the past. Let's get on with the future...