Geoff Johnson: Promoting SA's "10th province"by leveraging Diaspora support

It's almost 30 years since the late Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert led a group of five dozen white South Africans to Dakar for a historic first meeting with Thabo Mbeki's 17-person ANC delegation. Slabbert, the one-time Leader of the Official Opposition who abandoned Parliament in disgust, was accompanied by leading anti-apartheid protagonists like Breyten Breytenbach, Andre Brink, Willie Esterhuyse, Max du Preez, Alistair Sparks and Jimi Matthews. Among the the group was Geoff Johnson, then an executive at the SA Perm, who had joined the ANC a year before after activist David Webster. After Webster was assassinated on May 1, 1989, Johnson decided to relocate to the UK where he has remained a committed supporter of all things South African. Among them is his creation of the biggest annual charity golf day in the Northern Hemisphere where he taps into the disapora "SA's 10th province" to raise funds for worth causes back home. In almost 20 years, the golf day has sent almost £2m to SA charities. Johnson was one of the earliest employees at St James's Place, the FTSE 100 wealth management business established in 1991 by fellow South African Sir Mark Weinberg. Here's Johnson's story. He tales us along road winding from disrupting rebel sports tours through to being an early stage employee at two massive businesses built by among SA's finest entrepreneurs. Fascinating.