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.
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