The extraordinary South African who built Eskom and Iscor

Hendrik van der Bijl played a key role in creating more than a dozen South African companies, including Eskom, the Industrial and Development Corporation (IDC), and Iscor, now known as ArcelorMittal South Africa. 

Van der Bijl’s rise to an industrial titan was never a given. As the son of a grain and produce merchant in 1880s South Africa, he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. 

Born in 1887 in Pretoria, Van der Bijl’s father had built up a successful business and even became a well-known property investor in the growing Zuid Afrikaansche Republic of the Transvaal. 

Van der Bijl would rise from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential South Africans ever. In addition to his industrial prowess, he would count Jan Smuts, Louis Botha, and Barry Hertzog as friends. 

The Anglo-Boer War disrupted his early education after his school, the Staatsch Model School, was closed down to become a prisoner-of-war camp.

After the fall of Pretoria in 1900, the family moved to Gordon’s Bay, and Hendrik was sent to Boys’ High School at Franschhoek, where he matriculated. 

Young Van der Bijl was deeply interested in music, literature, and philosophy. However, he proved most adept at physical science and enjoyed its application, continuing his studies in physics at Victoria College, today’s Stellenbosch University. 

In 1908, Van der Bijl graduated with distinctions in mathematics, chemistry and physics. He won the prize for the best student in mathematics and physics. 

His opportunities were severely limited at the time in South Africa, with very little industrial production in which Van der Bijl could apply his talent. 

Instead, he decided to further his studies in Europe, first at Halle and later at the University of Leipzig. 

Van der Bijl completed his thesis in two years and impressed his supervisor so much that he offered him a position as an Assistant in Physics at the Royal School of Technology in Dresden. 

At the beginning of 1912, the 24 year-old van der Bijl took up his new duties, having left Leipzig with the degrees of Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.

When conducting his research, Van der Bijl met American Robert Millikan and recommended he begin his working career at Western Electric in New York. 

Van der Bijl worked at Western Electric for seven years and assisted the US government with the defence of the country during WWI. 

General Jan Smuts, by then, had risen to the position of Prime Minister and argued the country’s government needed a scientific advisory to drive its industrliasation. Van der Bijl was his first choice and returned to South Africa in 1920. 

Building South Africa

Smuts first appointed Van der Bijl to the Department of Mines and Industries with special powers. Van der Bijl reported directly to Smuts and began to pursue methods to ensure communication between South Africa and the rest of the British Empire through radio. 

This turned out to be something of a side project for Van der Bijl, with his first major achievement being the creation of the Electricity Supply Commission (Escom) in 1922. 

Escom was to supply electrical power to the whole of South Africa, particularly for industrial use and for electric traction on the railways. He remained its chairman from 1922 to his death in 1948.

The utility began operating in 1923 and soon became extremely successful, paying back all its loans from the government within ten years. 

Escom progressed form strength to strength, and within a short period of time, van der Bijl was able to fulfil his promise – South Africa was assured of sufficient inexpensive power for its fast-growing industries.

Van der Bijl saw Escom’s production of cheap and reliable electricity as one pillar of two on which South Africa’s industry would be built.  

The other was the production of adequate and affordable steel, which would require him to build another company from the ground up in short succession. 

Just three years after founding Escom, Van der Bijl moved on to creating the South African Iron and Steel Corporation (Iscor) to provide inexpensive steel for the country. 

At that time, there was a lack of industrial skills to manufacture steel in South Africa. Van der Bijl overcame this obstacle by appointing a committee of international iron and steel experts from Britain, America, Germany and Sweden to train of South Africans. 

The venture met with considerable opposition at the time and during its early years, among others, because steel could be imported cheaply during the depression years of the early 1930s. 

However, despite problems with the supply of raw materials and a shortage of adequately trained staff, the enterprise proved successful in the end. 

Just over a decade later, in 1934, South Africa had a fully functional steelworks in the complex now known as Vanderbijlpark after Iscor’s founder. 

Van der Bijl headed the Corporation from its creation in 1925 until his death. He spent much of his time studying Iscor’s technical problems and visiting overseas steel plants for many years.

In the early 2000s, Iscor was sold by Thabo Mbeki’s government as his administration sought to run a tight ship and right the country’s finances. 

In December 2004, Ispat International acquired LNM, the parent company of Ispat Iscor. After the acquisition, the merged company’s name was changed to Mittal Steel Company. 

Ispat Iscor commenced trading under the new name Mittal Steel South Africa Limited in March 2005. After the merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor, the company commenced trading under the new name – ArcelorMittal South Africa – in October 2006.

Funding the South African economy

Unsatisfied with the progress made in industrialising the South African economy, Van der Bijl turned his attention towards providing financial and technical assistance to various ventures. 

This led him to create the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which was fuelled by a sense of urgency as trade between Europe and South Africa was disrupted during WWII. 

Founded in 1940, the IDC’s first aim was to alleviate the shortage of manufactured goods in South Africa as a result of the disruption of WWII. 

Since its establishment, the corporation has been instrumental in implementing South Africa’s industrial development policy, establishing some of the industries that have since become cornerstones of the country’s manufacturing sector.

These include the petrol-chemicals, mining and mineral beneficiation industries, fabricated metals, agro-industries, and clothing and textiles, among others.

Apart from serving as chairman of the companies he founded, Van der Bijl would also become Director-General of War Supplies – the forerunner of Armscor and Denel.

At the end of the war, still holding the chairmanship of the three most significant companies he founded, Van der Bijl had only been working in South Africa for 25 years. 

Aside from Escom, Iscor, and the IDC, Vanderbijl was also behind the creation of mining company Amcor, Vecor, and various other developments in South Africa. 

Van der Bijl died in 1948 while still in the prime of his life at the age of 61. 

“In this time, he had been responsible for the rapid advance of his country along the paths of progress and prosperity,” Eskom says on its website. 

“He was a man of vision and forcefulness who planned magnificently. The benefits of these attributes are being reaped in South Africa today.”