The hardest working man you could hope to meet
Obituary: Roland ‘Roley’ Rogers – Bata SA, commission agent (11/09/1938-23/01/2024)
Roley was born in Kuruman in the Northern Cape and was educated at CBC in Kimberly.
He was an outstanding sportsman and represented OFS and Eastern Cape schools at rugby, cricket, and swimming.
He joined Bata in Johannesburg and worked his way up to eventually becoming the marketing manager in Bata’s head office in Manchester Road in Pinetown.
Along the way he became the scrum half for Natal!
His club side was Berea Rovers and when he was not on provincial duty, he enjoyed playing for Rovers, where his fly half was often a guy named John Whittle!
Roley’s time at Bata was notable, and he was responsible for the launch of several new brands, the most famous of which was North Star!
It was during this time that Roley married his wife Karen, and they went to live in Cowies Hill and produced two boys, Brett and Stuart.
Eventually Roley left Bata and joined Doug Roberts and Martin Whiteman to form Verona Footwear with Roley moving to Johannesburg to do the sales.
After the winding up of Verona, Roley retired and busied himself working for underprivileged people.
A wonderful guy in every way and the hardest working man you could hope to meet!
Roley was 85. RIP.
Footwear Industry Articles
- Top footwear resale trends 2024 - StockX report
The 2024 StockX Current Culture Index reveals some interesting trends in the resale market. Here are some of the key takeaways:SneakersAnta is the fastest-growing sneaker brand on StockX, with a whopping 1,901% trade growth year-over-year. This is largely thanks to Kyrie Irving’s signature shoe, the Kai ...moreObituary: Zelton Wiskin – footwear agent (24/03/1958-24/01/2025) :‘He loved to please people - regardless of the consequences’
Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA – Retired former footwear agent Zelton Wiskin died in January, after a long illness, aged 66.Born in Johannesburg, he left school early to work for his stepfather, Aubrey Fuchs, who was also an agent.He represented 2 footwear companies for most of his working career – women’s footwear manufactur ...moreBergstan: Less affected on the plattelandNeither of those has had an effect on my business. I suppose it’s because my stores are more on the platteland. The only thing that has an effect on us is the economy. ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- SA ratifies Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and AgriculturePretoria, Gauteng, SA (28 January 2025) – South Africa became the 154th ‘contracting party’ to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) by depositing its instrument of accession with the Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on 23 December 2024, acc ...moreAfrica Agri Tech Conference and Exhibition: ‘All problems have a common solution – technology’Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – The third Africa Agri Tech Conference and Exhibition (AAT), taking place from 18 to 20 March 2025 at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria, is the gateway to the latest AgTech breakthroughs.“The biggest challenges facing food producers today – rising input costs, erratic weather, theft, and logis ...moreThe subjective nature of auditing
This month’s article has a personal perspective, perhaps you might say a subjective perspective, and that is the challenge of applying consistent approaches and standards to auditing. I’m speaking here from recent personal experience – names and organisations are excluded for obvious reasons, but the case study is real. ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- 7 strategies to create more resilient mine dewatering
Dewatering is a crucial operation in mining. Chetan Mistry, Strategy and Marketing Manager at Xylem Africa, advises how to approach mine dewatering with these 7 strategies. As recent events at a Namibian mine demonstrate, dewatering is a critical linchpin for mining operations. ...moreConsumer Protection Act marking – ‘beware faulty inspections’ warns importer who is R250 000 poorerPinetown, KZN, SA – Wholesaler and retailer Treadsafe cc, which had a container of 120 000 pairs of plain white cotton gloves held up last July by the National Consumer Commission for suspected contravention of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), managed to get the container released – almost 3 months and around R250 ...moreSwitch to updated standard: Footwear suppliers given time limit to run out old stockPretoria, Gauteng, SA – Safety footwear suppliers have until April 2026 to sell stock made to the 2014 edition of SA National Standard (SANS) 20345.The National Regulator for Compulsory Standards (NRCS) confirmed this at a stakeholder meeting on 11 March.The SA National Standard (SANS) for safety footwear in South Africa was upgrade ...more
