Neale Hill: Committed to Ford and SA – for life

Neale Hill’s first car was a Ford – an Escort 1600 (one six double oh, ek sê) Sport – and which taught him how to strip, repair and assemble the car’s sometimes temperamental four-speed gearbox.

His first job was with Ford, the global carmaker. More than 30 years later, he’s still with Ford, he’s still (as you’d expect of the managing director of the company’s Southern African division) driving a Ford. But the massive and aggressive Ranger Raptor 4×4 is a far cry from the humble Escort… as is its state-of-the-art off-road systems and slick
10-speed auto gearbox.

What surprises me about Hill, though, is that he’s not an American. He was born in East London and grew up and was educated in Durbs. The Hills have lived in Thailand, China, Australia and New Zealand while he worked his way up the Ford corporate ladder.

In 2015, he was offered the chance to come back to South Africa. Moving countries for him was about career and not
about politics or “taking the chicken route”. “We were just South Africans working in other countries.”

Hill comes across as an optimist, especially about the future of SA – but he admits his positive nature was tested as he and his wife prepared to leave Australia for SA in 2015.

“As we closed the container door, we heard that Jacob Zuma had fired Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister and replaced him with Des van Rooyen. The rand was tanking and everybody was gloomy. There was a moment when I thought ‘what the hell am I doing?’”

Somehow, he remained convinced that rejoining the Ford SA team would “enable me to make some kind of positive contribution to the country”. That has turned out to be helping convince Ford’s parent company in the US to invest $1 billion (R14.7 billion) in the local plant at Silverton outside Pretoria, and in helping to set up the first of a number of “special economic zones” around SA.

These, backed by the government, are aimed at generating employment and making foreign investment easier. The one in Pretoria, says Hill, was the culmination of long and detailed work from the Ford team, as well as long and detailed discussions with the Gauteng government.

“It was really good dealing with premier David Makhura. He understood what the benefits would be and he made sure the whole project happened, in terms of infrastructure.”

Yet, getting buy-in from government was one thing. “Decisions within Ford on where to build cars is not a given, it’s an internal business direction that needs to make absolute sense.”

Hill agrees the people at the top, making global decisions, exclude emotion and look at the bottom line numbers. In addition, they have options, because the SA pitch for the investment – to expand the plant here – was up against proposals from other countries, some of which might be considered more stable.

People don’t realise, Hill believes, the significance of the Ford commitment, nor of other investments made by other carmakers with plants in this country.

“The motor industry is an absolutely critical part of the economy, both in terms of contribution to GDP and to employment.”

Ford’s products from the Silverton factory are exported to more than 100 markets worldwide. In Europe, Hill is proud to say, the Ranger bakkie (pickup in international speak) is the top selling one in its class. And, todo that, quality has to be top drawer.

Also, that advanced technology – the plant assembles vehicles which are compliant with the latest, and most stringent, European emissions standards – is finding its way into vehicles for the local market.

“We are able to produce vehicles which are the equal of any produced elsewhere in the Ford group and which satisfy the highest international standards. That’s something to be proud of… as a nation.”

Yet, Hill warns that the motor sector in SA is vulnerable to the whims of politicians, who often complain about the
concessions granted to carmakers based locally. It might be seen as an expensive subsidy, but he believes it is “an
investment in stability”.

Hill is honest that he has been lucky: “I have a passion for cars and I work in an industry and a company where they also have that passion.”

And, he still likes to play. When the Ranger Raptor – a near race-ready offroader with amazing capability – was launched, he spent a week power sliding and jumping it through sandy desert wastes near Upington.

Even now, he sometimes takes “the long (and dirty) road” home to his house in Pretoria.

And everybody at Ford knows the mud-spattered Raptor in the car park is his.

– brendans@citizen.co.za

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