Mark Thatcher - arrogance in the shadow of power

By JONATHAN BROWN

Sir Mark Thatcher once leaped to his mother's defence when questioned over her unflagging opposition to sanctions in South Africa, remarking "My sympathy is with the struggling white community".

She in turn used to joke that she sent him there during adolescence "to clear up his spots".

Perhaps it was unsurprising then that when the investigations into his business dealings in the United States became a little too probing, he would turn his back on "the Texas crap" and build a new life for his family among the bougainvillea-draped mansions of Constantia, Cape Town's most eminent suburb.

Thatcher and his family took up residence behind the imposing security fences of their $5.5 million mock Tudor mansion in 1995 in an area dubbed the white man's paradise. Here they could count among their neighbours Earl Spencer, the brother of the Princess of Wales.

For life in the Cape is sweet. During the apartheid years it may have attracted a certain kind of British visitor, one prepared to see only the natural beauty of the place rather than the injustice of the racist state.

But since the release of Nelson Mandela, the rich there can enjoy the world-class vineyards, the Royal Cape Golf Club and the spectacular views of Table Mountain untarnished by associations with apartheid.

During Thatcher's journey to the tip of Africa he is said to have amassed a fortune of £60 million ($165 million), a figure he claims is hugely overstated.

Born on August 15, 1953, he and his twin sister, Carol, were delivered by Caesarean while their father, Denis Thatcher, a successful oil man, watched a Test Match at the Oval.

The twins were completely different in temperament: Carol, outgoing and friendly, Mark introverted and serious. Life in the Thatcher household was, if not free and easy, at least undemanding - as along as they did not bring trouble for their parents.

Educated at Harrow, he passed just three O levels, living up to the nickname "Thickie Mork". Failing his accountancy exams an impressive three times, he toyed with a number of possible careers.

There was a job with a stockbroker, which took him to South Africa, a stint in Hong Kong and a job as a jewellery salesman.

By 1977 his dream was to become a racing driver and he set up Mark Thatcher Racing. The operation was soon in the pits with cash problems but Thatcher's determination to make it in the glamorous world of motorsport was eventually to turn him into a figure of fun for the British media.

Taking part in the 1982 Paris-Dakar rally he became lost in the Sahara Desert, prompting his mother to be seen crying in public for the only time in her premiership. He had made no preparation for the event but refused to admit he was at fault.

This arrogant streak emerged in blazing technicolour when the media finally caught up with him.

When his father came to Algeria to help find him, Mark refused to shake his hand for a photograph. Worse, he declined to thank the Algerian rescue team, leaving his father mortified.

Tales of his arrogance are legion. He once told a flight attendant who asked his name, "If you don't know by now you never will".

He was 26 when his mother swept into Downing St. But although he cut an unpopular figure, Lady Thatcher idolised him. "Mark could sell snow to the Eskimos, and sand to the Arabs," she once said.

But to those who came across him, he was cold and forbidding. To those in charge of the Thatcher public image, he was a liability.

He once asked Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher's former press secretary, how he could help his mother win the 1987 general election. Ingham replied: "Leave the country."

After he moved to Texas he met and married the millionairess Diane Burgdorf.

In 1986 it is alleged he played a key role in brokering a deal between British Aerospace and the Saudi Government, which earned him a commission in the region of £12 million.

Although the exact figure has never been confirmed, the money from this deal formed the bedrock of his personal fortune. The sale was part of the huge Al Yamamah arms deal, signed by Lady Thatcher. Senior Thatcherites admit that if it had emerged during her premiership, she could have been forced to resign.

Trouble seemed to cling to Mark Thatcher wherever he went. Now a self-styled international businessman, wealthy and well-connected, he continued to court controversy.

The security alarm company of which he was a director, Emergency Networks, went bust. Then there was a US Internal Revenue Service investigation into unpaid taxes.

He also become embroiled in the collapse of the aviation fuels company Ameristar. In 1995, amid claims that his relationship was in trouble, he moved to South Africa. But still the allegations came. In 1995, it was claimed he used a hand-written note from his mother addressed to the ruler of Abu Dhabi to secure a business deal.

His name was even mentioned in connection with the Pergau dam affair in which British aid to Malaysia was allegedly linked to a £1.3 billion contract.

Three years after he arrived in Cape Town he was forced to answer questions during an anti-corruption investigation after his company Matrix Capital was found to have made 900 small loans to Government officials. He claimed he was merely trying to help.

But no wrongdoing has ever been proved. Since then he has kept his head down and last year he inherited his father's baronetcy.

But this veneer of establishment acceptance has failed to undo the deep hostility he has generated over the years.

The question is will he escape the latest challenge to his reputation and return to the good life on the Cape?

- INDEPENDENT